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/' 


(rOuX     X  (v€i^-^^^ 


THE   CIVILIZATION 
OF  CHINA 


BY 

HERBERT  A.  GILES 

M.A.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  CHINESE    IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE, 
AND  SOMETIME  H.B.M.  CONSUL  AT  NINGPO 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND   COMPANY 

LONDON 

WILLIAMS   AND    NORGATE 


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PREFACE 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  to  suggest  a  rough 
outline  of  Chinese  civilization  from  the  earliest 
times  down  to  the  present  period  of  rapid  and 
startling  transition. 

It  has  been  written,  primarily,  for  readers  who 
know  little  or  nothing  of  China,  in  the  hope  that 
it  may  succeed  in  alluring  them  to  a  wider  and 
more  methodical  survey. 

H.  A.  G. 


Cambridge, 

May  12,  1911. 


ivil99164 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcinive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.archive.org/details/civilizationofchOOgilerich 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I  The  Feudal  Age 9 

II  Law  and  Government 39 

III  Religion  and  Superstition 57 

IV  A.D.  220-1200 81 

V  Women  and  Children 97 

VI  Literature  and  Education 113 

VII  Philosophy  and  Sport 136 

VIII  Recreation .  161 

IX  The  Mongols,  1260-1368 181 

X  Mings  and  Ch'ings,  1368-1911 199 

XI  Chinese  and  Foreigners 215 

XII  The  Outlook 237 

Bibliography 251 

Index 265 


THE  CIVILIZATION 
OF  CHINA 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  FEUDAL  AGE 

It  is  a  very  common  thing  now-a-days  to 
meet  people  who  are  going  to  "China,"  which 
can  be  reached  by  the  Siberian  railway  in 
fourteen  or  fifteen  days.  This  brings  us  at 
once  to  the  question — ^What  is  meant  by  the 
term  China? 

Taken  in  its  widest  sense,  the  term  includes 
Mongolia,  Manchuria,  Eastern  Turkestan, 
Tibet,  and  the  Eighteen  Provinces,  the  whole 
being  equivalent  to  an  area  of  some  five  mil- 
lion square  miles,  that  is,  considerably  more 
than  twice  the  size  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  But  for  a  study  of  the  manners 
and  customs  and  modes  of  thought  of  the 
Chinese  people,  we  must  confine  ourselves  to 
that  portion  of  the  whole  which  is  known  to 
the  Chinese  as  the  "Eighteen  Provinces," 
and  to  us  as  China  Proper.    This  portion  of 

9 


io^^   TbE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  empire  occupies  not  quite  two-fifths  of 
the  whole,  covering  an  area  of  somewhat 
more  than  a  miUion  and  a  half  square  miles. 
Its  chief  landmarks  may  be  roughly  stated 
as  Peking,  the  capital,  in  the  north;  Canton, 
the  great  commercial  centre,  in  the  south; 
Shanghai,  on  the  east;  and  the  Tibetan 
frontier  on  the  west. 

Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  look 
up  these  four  points  on  a  map,  representing 
as  they  do  central  points  on  the  four  sides  of 
a  rough  square,  will  soon  realize  the  absurdity 
of  asking  a  returning  traveller  the  very  much 
asked  question.  How  do  you  like  China? 
Fancy  asking  a  Chinaman,  who  had  spent  a 
year  or  two  in  England,  how  he  liked  Europe! 
Peking,  for  instance,  stands  on  the  same 
parallel  of  latitude  as  Madrid;  whereas  Can- 
ton coincides  similarly  with  Calcutta.  Within 
the  square  indicated  by  the  four  points  enu- 
merated above  will  be  found  variations  of 
climate,  flowers,  fruit,  vegetables  and  ani- 
mals— not  to  mention  human  beings — dis- 
tributed in  very  much  the  same  way  as  in 
Europe.  The  climate  of  Peking  is  exceed- 
ingly dry  and  bracing;  no  rain,  and  hardly 
any  snow,  falling  between  October  and  April. 
The  really  hot  weather  lasts  only  for  six  or 
eight  weeks,  about  July  and  August — and 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  11 

even  then  the  nights  are  always  cool;  while 
for  six  or  eight  weeks  between  December 
and  February  there  may  be  a  couple  of  feet 
of  ice  on  the  river.  Canton,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  a  tropical  climate,  with  a  long 
damp  enervating  summer  and  a  short  bleak 
winter.  The  old  story  runs  that  snow  has 
only  once  been  seen  in  Canton,  and  then  it 
was  thought  by  the  people  to  be  falling 
cotton- wool. 

The  northern  provinces  are  remarkable  for 
vast  level  plains,  dotted  with  villages,  the 
houses  of  which  are  built  of  mud.  In  the 
southern  provinces  will  be  found  long 
stretches  of  mountain  scenery,  vying  in  love- 
liness with  anything  to  be  seen  elsewhere. 
Monasteries  are  built  high  up  on  the  hills, 
often  on  almost  inaccessible  crags;  and  there 
the  well-to-do  Chinaman  is  wont  to  escape 
from  the  fierce  heat  of  the  southern  summer. 
On  one  particular  mountain  near  Canton, 
there  are  said  to  be  no  fewer  than  one  hun- 
dred of  such  monasteries,  all  of  which  reserve 
apartments  for  guests,  and  are  glad  to  be 
able  to  add  to  their  funds  by  so  doing. 

In  the  north  of  China,  Mongolian  ponies, 
splendid  mules,  and  donkeys  are  seen  in  large 
quantities;  also  the  two-humped  camel, 
which  carries  heavy  loads  across  the  plains  of 


12      THE  CIVILIZATION  OP  CHINA 

Mongolia.  In  the  south,  until  the  advent  of 
the  railway,  travellers  had  to  choose  between 
the  sedan-chair  carried  on  the  shoulders  of 
stalwart  coolies,  or  the  slower  but  more  com- 
fortable house-boat.  Before  steamers  began 
to  ply  on  the  coast,  a  candidate  for  the  doc- 
tor's degree  at  the  great  triennial  examina- 
tion would  take  three  months  to  travel  from 
Canton  to  Peking.  Urgent  dispatches,  how- 
ever, were  often  forwarded  by  relays  of  riders 
at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  miles  a  day. 

The  market  in  Peking  is  supplied,  among 
other  things,  with  excellent  mutton  from  a 
fat-tailed  breed  of  sheep,  chiefly  for  the  large 
Mohammedan  population;  but  the  sheep  will 
not  live  in  southern  China,  where  the  goat 
takes  its  place.  The  pig  is  found  everywhere, 
and  represents  beef  in  our  market,  the  latter 
being  extremely  unpalatable  to  the  ordinary 
Chinaman,  partly  perhaps  because  Confu- 
cius forbade  men  to  slaughter  the  animal 
which  draws  the  plough  and  contributes  so 
much  to  the  welfare  of  mankind.  The  staple 
food,  the  "bread"  of  the  people  in  the 
Chinese  Empire,  is  nominally  rice;  but  this 
is  too  costly  for  the  peasant  of  northern 
China  to  import,  and  he  falls  back  on  millet 
as  its  substitute.  Apples,  pears,  grapes, 
melons,  and  walnuts  grow  abundantly  in  the 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  13 

north;  the  southern  fruits  are  the  banana, 
the  orange,  the  pineapple,  the  mango,  the 
pomelo,  the  lichee,  and  similar  fruits  of  a 
more  tropical  character. 

Cold  storage  has  been  practised  by  the 
Chinese  for  centuries.  Blocks  of  ice  are  cut 
from  the  river  for  that  purpose;  and  on  a  hot 
summer's  day  a  Peking  coolie  can  obtain  an 
iced  drink  at  an  almost  infinitesimal  cost. 
Grapes  are  preserved  from  autumn  until  the 
following  May  and  June  by  the  simple  process 
of  sticking  the  stalk  of  the  bunch  into  a  large 
hard  pear,  and  putting  it  away  carefully  in 
the  ice-house.  Even  at  Ningpo,  close  to  our 
central  point  on  the  eastern  coast  of  China, 
thin  layers  of  ice  are  collected  from  pools 
and  ditches,  and  successfully  stored  for  use 
in  the  following  summer. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  coast  provinces  are 
distinguished  from  dwellers  in  the  north  and 
in  the  far  interior  by  a  marked  alertness  of 
mind  and  general  temperament.  The  Chinese 
themselves  declare  that  virtue  is  associated 
with  mountains,  wisdom  with  water,  cynic- 
ally implying  that  no  one  is  both  virtuous 
and  wise.  Between  the  inhabitants  of  the 
various  provinces  there  is  little  love  lost. 
Northerners  fear  and  hate  southerners,  and 
the  latter  hold  the  former  in  infinite  scorn 


14      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

and  contempt.  Thus,  when  in  1860  the 
Franco-British  force  made  for  Peking,  it  was 
easy  enough  to  secure  the  services  of  any 
number  of  Cantonese,  who  remained  as 
faithful  as  though  the  attack  had  been 
directed  against  some  third  nationality. 

The  population  of  China  has  never  been 
exactly  ascertained.  It  has  been  variously 
estimated  by  foreign  travellers,  Sacharoff,  in 
1842,  placing  the  figure  at  over  four  hundred 
millions.  The  latest  census,  taken  in  1902, 
is  said  to  yield  a  total  of  four  hundred  and 
ten  millions.  Perhaps  three  hundred  millions 
would  be  a  juster  estimate;  even  that  would 
absorb  no  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  human 
race.  From  this  total  it  is  easy  to  calculate 
that  if  the  Chinese  people  were  to  march  past 
a  given  point  in  single  file,  the  procession 
would  never  end;  long  before  the  last  of  the 
three  hundred  millions  had  passed  by,  a  new 
generation  would  have  sprung  up  to  continue 
the  endless  line.  The  census,  however,  is  a 
very  old  institution  with  the  Chinese;  and 
we  learn  that  in  a.d.  156  the  total  population 
of  the  China  of  those  days  was  returned  as 
a  little  over  fifty  millions.  In  more  modern 
times,  the  process  of  taking  the  census  con- 
sists in  serving  out  house-tickets  to  the  head 
of  every  household,  who  is  responsible  for  a 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  16 

proper  return  of  all  the  inmates;  but  as 
there  is  no  fixed  day  for  which  these  tickets 
are  returnable,  the  results  are  approximate 
rather  than  exact. 

Again,  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  people 
talking  of  the  Chinese  language  as  if  it  were 
a  single  tongue  spoken  all  over  China  after  a 
more  or  less  uniform  standard.  But  the  fact 
is  that  the  colloquial  is  broken  up  into  at 
least  eight  dialects,  each  so  strongly  marked 
as  to  constitute  eight  languages  as  different 
to  the  ear,  one  from  another,  as  English, 
Dutch  and  German,  or  French,  Spanish, 
Italian  and  Portuguese.  A  Shanghai  man, 
for  instance,  is  unintelligible  to  a  Cantonese, 
and  so  on.  All  officials  are  obliged,  and  all 
of  the  better  educated  merchants  and  others 
endeavour,  if  only  for  business  purposes,  to 
learn  something  of  the  dialect  spoken  at  the 
court  of  Peking;  and  this  is  what  is  popu- 
larly known  as  "Mandarin."  The  written 
language  remains  the  same  for  the  whole 
empire;  which  merely  means  that  ideas  set 
down  on  paper  after  a  uniform  system  are 
spoken  with  different  sounds,  just  as  the 
Arabic  numerals  are  written  uniformly  in 
England,  France  and  Germany,  but  are  pro- 
nounced in  a  totally  different  manner. 

The  only  difficulty  of  the  spoken  language. 


16      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

of  no  matter  what  dialect,  lies  in  the  "tones  " 
which  simply  means  the  different  intonations 
which  may  be  given  to  one  and  the  same 
sound,    thus    producing    so    many    entirely 
different  meanings.    But  for  these  tones,  the 
coUoqmal  of  China  would  be  absurdly  easy, 
masmuch  as  there  is  absolutely  no  such  thing 
as  grammar,  in  the  sense  of  gender,  number, 
case,  mood,  tense,  or  any  of  the  variations 
which  we  understand  by  that  term.    Many 
amusing  examples  are  current  of  blunders 
committed  by  faulty  speakers,  such  as  that 
ot  the  student  who  told  his  servant  to  bring 
him  a  goose,  when  what  he  really  wanted 
was  some  salt,  both  goose  and  salt  having  the 
same  sound,  yen,  but  quite   different   into- 
nations.     The  following  specimen  has   the 
advantage  of  being  true.    A  British  official 
reported  to  the  Foreign  Office  that  the  peo- 
ple of  Tientsin  were  in  the  habit  of  shouting 
after  foreigners,  "Mao-tzti,  mao-tzii"  (pro- 
nounced mowdza,  ow  as  in  how),  from  which 
he  gathered  that  they  were  much  struck  by 
the  head-gear  of  the  barbarian.    Now,  it  is 
a  fact  that  mao-tzii,  uttered  with  a  certain 
intonation,  means  a  hat;    but  with  another 
intonation  it  means  "hairy  one,"  and  the 
latter,  referring  to  the  big  beards  of  for- 
eigners, was  the  meaning  intended  to  be  con- 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  17 

veyed.    This  epithet  is  still  to  be  heard,  and 
is  often  preceded  by  the  adjective  "red." 

The  written  characters,  known  to  have 
been  in  use  for  the  past  three  thousand  years, 
were  originally  rude  pictures,  as  of  men, 
birds,  horses,  dogs,  houses,  the  numerals 
(one,  two,  three,  four),  etc.,  etc.,  and  it  is  still 
possible  to  trace  in  the  modified  modern 
forms  of  these  characters  more  or  less  strik- 
ing resemblances  to  the  objects  intended. 
The  next  step  was  to  put  two  or  more  char- 
acters together,  to  express  by  their  combina- 
tion an  abstract  idea,  as,  for  instance,  a 
hand  holding  a  rod  =  father;  but  of  course 
this  simple  process  did  not  carry  the  Chinese 
very  far,  and  they  soon  managed  to  hit  on 
a  joint  picture  and  phonetic  system,  which 
enabled  them  to  multiply  characters  indefi- 
nitely, new  compounds  being  formed  for  use 
as  required.  It  is  thus  that  new  characters 
can  still  be  produced,  if  necessary,  to  express 
novel  objects  or  ideas.  The  usual  plan,  how- 
ever, is  to  combine  existing  terms  in  such  a 
way  as  to  suggest  what  is  wanted.  For  in- 
stance, in  preference  to  inventing  a  separate 
character  for  the  piece  of  ordnance  known 
as  a  "mortar,"  the  Chinese,  with  an  eye  to 
its  peculiar  pose,  gave  it  the  appropriate 
name  of  a  "frog  gun." 


18      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Again,  just  as  the  natives  and  the  dialects 
of  the  various  parts  of  China  differ  one  from 
another,  although  fundamentally  the  same 
people  and  the  same  language,  so  do  the 
manners  and  customs  differ  to  such  an  extent 
that  habits  of  life  and  ceremonial  regulations 
which  prevail  in  one  part  of  the  empire  do  not 
necessarily  prevail  in  another.  Yet  once  more 
it  will  be  found  that  the  differences  which 
appear  irreconcilable  at  first,  do  not  affect 
what  is  essential,  but  apply  rather  to  matters 
of  detail.  Many  travellers  and  others  have 
described  as  customs  of  the  Chinese  customs 
which,  as  presented,  refer  to  a  part  of  China 
only,  and  not  to  the  whole.  For  instance,  the 
ornamental  ceremonies  connected  with  mar- 
riage vary  in  different  provinces;  but  there  is 
a  certain  ceremony,  equivalent  in  one  sense 
to  signing  the  register,  which  is  almost  essen- 
tial to  every  marriage  contract.  Bride  and 
bridegroom  must  kneel  down  and  call  God 
to  witness;  they  also  pledge  each  other  in 
wine  from  two  cups  joined  together  by  a 
red  string.  Red  is  the  colour  for  joy,  as 
white  is  the  colour  for  mourning.  Chinese 
note-paper  is  always  ruled  with  red  lines  or 
stamped  with  a  red  picture.  One  Chinese 
oflScial  who  gave  a  dinner-party  in  foreign 
style,  even  went  so  far  as  to  paste  a  piece  of 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  18 

red  paper  on  to  each  dinner-napkin,  in  order 
to  counteract  the  unpropitious  influence  of 
white. 

Reference  has  been  made  above  to  journeys 
performed  by  boat.  In  addition  to  the 
Yangtsze  and  the  Yellow  River  or  Hoang  ho 
(pronounced  Hwong  haw),  two  of  the  most 
important  rivers  in  the  world,  China  is  cov- 
ered with  a  network  of  minor  streams,  which 
in  southern  China  form  the  chief  lines  of 
transport.  The  Yangtsze  is  nothing  more 
than  a  huge  navigable  river,  crossing  China 
Proper  from  west  to  east.  The  Yellow  River, 
which,  with  the  exception  of  a  great  loop  to 
the  north,  runs  on  nearly  parallel  lines  of 
latitude,  has  long  been  known  as  "China's 
Sorrow,"  and  has  been  responsible  for  enor- 
mous loss  of  life  and  property.  Its  current 
is  so  swift  that  ordinary  navigation  is  im- 
possible, and  to  cross  it  in  boats  is  an  under- 
taking of  considerable  diflBculty  and  danger. 
It  is  so  called  from  the  yellowness  of  its 
water,  caused  by  the  vast  quantity  of  mud 
which  is  swept  down  by  its  rapid  current  to 
the  sea;  hence,  the  common  saying,  "When 
the  Yellow  River  runs  clear,"  as  an  equiva- 
lent of  the  Greek  Kalends.  The  huge  em- 
bankments, built  to  confine  it  to  a  given 
course,  are  continually  being  forced  by  any 


20      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

unusual  press  of  extra  water,  with  enormous 
damage  to  property  and  great  loss  of  life,  and 
from  time  to  time  this  river  has  been  known 
to  change  its  route  altogether,  suddenly 
diverging,  almost  at  a  right  angle.  Up  to 
the  year  1851  the  mouth  of  the  river  was 
to  the  south  of  the  Shantung  promontory, 
about  lat.  34  N.;  then,  with  hardly  any 
warning,  it  began  to  flow  to  the  north-east, 
finding  an  outlet  to  the  north  of  the  Shan- 
tung promontory,  about  lat.  38  N. 

A  certain  number  of  connecting  links  have 
been  formed  between  the  chief  lines  of  water 
communication,  in  the  shape  of  artificial  cut- 
tings; but  there  is  nothing  worthy  the  name 
of  canal  except  the  rightly  named  Grand 
Canal,  called  by  the  Chinese  the  "river  of 
locks,"  or  alternatively  the  "transport  river," 
because  once  used  to  convey  rice  from  the 
south  to  Peking.  This  gigantic  work,  de- 
signed and  executed  in  the  thirteenth  century 
by  the  Emperor  Kublai  Khan,  extended  to 
about  six  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  length, 
and  completed  an  almost  unbroken  water 
communication  between  Peking  and  Canton. 
As  a  wonderful  engineering  feat  it  is  indeed 
more  than  matched  by  the  famous  Great 
Wall,  which  dates  back  to  a  couple  of  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ,  and  which  has  been 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  21 

glorified  as  the  last  trace  of  man's  handiwork 
on  the  globe  to  fade  from  the  view  of  an  im- 
aginary person  receding  into  space.  Recent 
exploration  shows  that  this  wall  is  about 
eighteen  hundred  miles  in  length,  stretching 
from  a  point  on  the  seashore  somewhat  east 
of  Peking,  to  the  northern  frontier  of  Tibet. 
Roughly  speaking,  it  is  twenty-two  feet  in 
height  by  twenty  feet  in  breadth;  at  intervals 
of  a  hundred  yards  are  towers  forty  feet  high, 
the  whole  being  built  originally  of  brick,  of 
which  in  some  parts  but  mere  traces  now 
remain.  Nor  is  this  the  only  great  wall; 
ruins  of  other  walls  on  a  considerable  scale 
have  lately  been  brought  to  light,  the  object 
of  all  being  one  and  the  same — to  keep  back 
the  marauding  Tartars. 

Over  the  length  and  breadth  of  their  bound- 
less empire,  with  all  its  varying  climates  and 
inhabitants,  the  Chinese  people  are  free  to 
travel,  for  business  or  pleasure,  at  their  own 
sweet  will,  and  to  take  up  their  abode  at  any 
spot  without  let  or  hindrance.  No  passports 
are  required;  neither  is  any  ordinary  citizen 
obliged  to  possess  other  papers  of  identifica- 
tion. Chinese  inns  are  not  exposed  to  the 
annoyance  of  domiciliary  visits  with  reference 
to  their  clients  for  the  time  being;  and  so 
long  as  the  latter  pay  their  way,  and  refrain 


%%      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

from  molesting  others,  they  will  usually 
be  free  from  molestation  themselves.  The 
Chinese,  however,  are  not  fond  of  travel- 
ling; they  love  their  homes  too  well,  and  they 
further  dread  the  inconveniences  and  dangers 
attached  to  travel  in  many  other  parts  of  the 
world.  Boatmen,  carters,  and  innkeepers 
have  all  of  them  bad  reputations  for  extortion- 
ate charges;  and  the  traveller  may  sometimes 
happen  upon  a  "black  inn,"  which  is  an- 
other name  for  a  den  of  thieves.  Still  there 
have  been  many  who  travelled  for  the  sake  of 
beautiful  scenery,  or  in  order  to  visit  famous 
spots  of  historical  interest;  not  to  mention 
the  large  body  of  oiBBcials  who  are  constantly 
on  the  move,  passing  from  post  to  post. 

Among  those  who  believe  that  every  nation 
must  have  reached  its  present  quarters  from 
some  other  distant  part  of  the  world,  must  be 
reckoned  a  few  students  of  the  ancient  history 
of  China.  Coincidences  in  language  and  in 
manners  and  customs,  mostly  of  a  shadowy 
character,  have  led  some  to  suggest  Babylonia 
as  the  region  from  which  the  Chinese  migrated 
to  the  land  where  they  are  now  found.  The 
Chinese  possess  authentic  records  of  an  in- 
disputably early  past,  but  throughout  these 
records  there  is  absolutely  no  mention,  not 
even  a  hint,  of  any  migration  of  the  kind. 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  23 

Tradition  places  the  Golden  Age  of  China 
so  far  back  as  three  thousand  years  before 
Christ;  for  a  sober  survey  of  China's  early 
civilization,  it  is  not  necessary  to  push  far- 
ther back  than  the  tenth  century  B.C.  We 
shall  find  evidence  of  such  an  advanced  state 
of  civilization  at  that  later  date  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  of  a  very  remote  antiquity. 

The  China  of  those  days,  known  even  then 
as  the  Middle  Kingdom,  was  a  mere  patch  on 
the  empire  of  to-day.  It  lay,  almost  lozenge- 
shaped,  between  the  34th  and  40th  parallels 
of  latitude  north,  with  the  upper  point  of  the 
lozenge  resting  on  the  modern  Peking,  and 
the  lower  on  Si-an  Fu  in  Shensi,  whither  the 
late  Empress  Dowager  fled  for  safety  during 
the  Boxer  rising  in  1900.  The  ancient  auto- 
cratic Imperial  system  had  recently  been 
disestablished,  and  a  feudal  system  had  taken 
its  place.  The  country  was  divided  up  into  a 
number  of  vassal  states  of  varying  size  and 
importance,  ruled  each  by  its  own  baron,  who 
swore  allegiance  to  the  sovereign  of  the  Royal 
State.  The  relations,  however,  which  came 
to  subsist,  as  time  went  on,  between  these 
states,  sovereign  and  vassal  alike,  as  de- 
scribed in  contemporary  annals,  often  remind 
the  reader  of  the  relations  which  prevailed 
between   the   various   political   divisions   of 


M      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

ancient  Greece.  The  rivalries  of  Athens  and 
Sparta,  whose  capitals  were  only  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  apart — though  a  perusal 
of  Thucydides  makes  one  feel  that  at  least 
half  the  world  was  involved — find  their  exact 
equivalent  in  the  jealousies  and  animosities 
which  stirred  the  feudal  states  of  ancient 
China,  and  in  the  disastrous  campaigns  and 
bloody  battles  which  the  states  fought  with 
one  another.  We  read  of  chariots  and  horse- 
manship; of  feats  of  arms  and  deeds  of  indi- 
vidual heroism;  of  forced  marches,  and  of 
night  attacks  in  which  the  Chinese  soldier 
was  gagged  with  a  kind  of  wooden  bit,  to 
prevent  talking  in  the  ranks;  of  territory  an- 
nexed and  reconquered,  and  of  the  violent 
deaths  of  rival  rulers  by  poison  or  the  dagger 
of  the  assassin. 

When  the  armies  of  these  states  went  into 
battle  they  formed  a  line,  with  the  bowmen 
on  the  left  and  the  spearmen  on  the  right 
flank.  The  centre  was  occupied  by  chariots, 
each  drawn  by  either  three  or  four  horses 
harnessed  abreast.  Swords,  daggers,  shields, 
iron-headed  clubs  some  five  to  six  feet  in 
length  and  weighing  from  twelve  to  fifteen 
pounds,  huge  iron  hooks,  drums,  cymbals, 
gongs,  horns,  banners  and  streamers  innu- 
merable, were  also  among  the  equipment  of 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  25 

war.  Beacon-fires  of  wolves'  dung  were 
lighted  to  announce  the  approach  of  an 
enemy  and  summon  the  inhabitants  to  arms. 
Quarter  was  rarely  if  ever  given,  and  it  was 
customary  to  cut  the  ears  from  the  bodies 
of  the  slain.  Parleys  were  conducted  and 
terms  of  peace  arranged  under  the  shelter 
of  a  banner  of  truce,  upon  which  two  words 
were  inscribed — "Stop  fighting." 

The  beacon-fires  above  mentioned,  very 
useful  for  summoning  the  feudal  barons  to 
the  rescue  in  case  of  need,  cost  one  sovereign 
his  throne.  He  had  a  beautiful  concubine, 
for  the  sake  of  whose  company  he  neglected 
the  affairs  of  government.  The  lady  was  of 
a  melancholy  turn,  never  being  seen  to  smile. 
She  said  she  loved  the  sound  of  rent  silk,  and 
to  gratify  her  whim  many  fine  pieces  of  silk 
were  torn  to  shreds.  The  king  offered  a 
thousand  ounces  of  gold  to  any  one  who 
would  make  her  laugh;  whereupon  his  chief 
minister  suggested  that  the  beacon-fires 
should  be  lighted  to  summon  the  feudal 
nobles  with  their  armies,  as  though  the  royal 
house  were  in  danger.  The  trick  succeeded; 
for  in  the  hurry-skurry  that  ensued  the 
impassive  girl  positively  laughed  outright. 
Later  on,  when  a  real  attack  was  made  upon 
the   capital   by   barbarian   hordes,   and   the 


26      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

beacon-fires  were  again  lighted,  this  time  in 
stern  reaHty,  there  was  no  response  from  the 
insulted  nobles.  The  king  was  killed,  and 
his  concubine  strangled  herself. 

Meanwhile,  a  high  state  of  civilization  was 
enjoyed  by  these  feudal  peoples,  when  not 
engaged  in  cutting  each  other's  throats. 
They  lived  in  thatched  houses  constructed  of 
rammed  earth  and  plaster,  with  beaten  floors 
on  which  dry  grass  was  strewn  as  carpet. 
Originally  accustomed  to  sit  on  mats,  they 
introduced  chairs  and  tables  at  an  early  date; 
they  drank  an  ardent  spirit  with  their  care- 
fully cooked  food,  and  wore  robes  of  silk. 
Ballads  were  sung,  and  dances  were  per- 
formed, on  ceremonial  and  festive  occasions; 
hunting  and  fishing  and  agriculture  were 
occupations  for  the  men,  while  the  women 
employed  themselves  in  spinning  and  weav- 
ing. There  were  casters  of  bronze  vessels, 
and  workers  in  gold,  silver,  and  iron;  jade 
and  other  stones  were  cut  and  polished 
for  ornaments.  The  written  language  was 
already  highly  developed,  being  much  the 
same  as  we  now  find  it.  Indeed,  the  chief 
difference  lies  in  the  form  of  the  characters, 
just  as  an  old  English  text  differs  in  form 
from  a  text  of  the  present  day.  What  we 
may  call  the  syntax  of  the  language  has  re- 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  ^7 

mained  very  much  the  same;  and  phrases 
from  the  old  ballads  of  three  thousand  years 
ago,  which  have  passed  into  the  colloquial, 
are  still  readily  understood,  though  of  course 
pronounced  according  to  the  requirements 
of  modern  speech.  We  can  no  more  say 
how  Confucius  (551-479  B.C.)  pronounced 
Chinese,  than  we  can  say  how  Miltiades  pro- 
nounced Greek  when  addressing  his  soldiers 
before  the  battle  of  Marathon  (490  B.C.). 
The  "books"  which  were  read  in  ancient 
China,  consisted  of  thin  slips  of  wood  or 
bamboo,  on  which  the  characters  were 
written  by  means  of  a  pencil  of  wood  or 
bamboo,  slightly  frayed  at  the  end,  so  as  to 
pick  up  a  coloured  liquid  and  transfer  it  to 
the  tablets  as  required.  Until  recently,  it 
was  thought  that  the  Chinese  scratched 
their  words  on  tablets  of  bamboo  with  a 
knife,  but  now  we  know  that  the  knife  was 
only  used  for  scratching  out,  when  a  char- 
acter was  wrongly  written. 

The  art  of  healing  was  practised  among 
the  Chinese  in  their  pre-historic  times,  but 
the  earliest  efforts  of  a  methodical  character, 
of  which  we  have  any  written  record,  belong 
to  the  period  with  which  we  are  now  dealing. 
There  is  indeed  a  work,  entitled  "Plain 
Questions,"  which  is  attributed  to  a  legendary 


28      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

emperor  of  the  Golden  Age,  who  interrogates 
one  of  his  ministers  on  the  cause  and  cure  of 
all  kinds  of  diseases;  as  might  be  expected,  it 
is  not  of  any  real  value,  nor  can  its  date  be 
carried  back  beyond  a  few  centuries  B.C. 

Physicians  of  the  feudal  age  classified 
diseases  under  the  four  seasons  of  the  year: 
headaches  and  neuralgic  affections  under 
spring^  skin  diseases  of  all  kinds  under  sum- 
mer^  fevers  and  agues  under  autumn^  and 
bronchial  and  pulmonary  complaints  under 
winter.  They  treated  the  various  complaints 
that  fell  under  these  headings  by  suitable 
doses  of  one  or  more  ingredients  taken  from 
the  five  classes  of  drugs,  derived  from  herbs, 
trees,  living  creatures,  minerals,  and  grains, 
each  of  which  class  contained  medicines  of 
five  flavours,  with  special  properties:  sour  for 
nourishing  the  bones,  axiid  for  nourishing  the 
muscles,  salt  for  nourishing  the  blood-vessels, 
hitter  for  nourishing  general  vitality,  and 
sweet  for  nourishing  the  flesh.  The  pulse  has 
always  been  very  much  to  the  front  in  the 
treatment  of  disease;  there  are  at  least 
twenty-four  varieties  of  pulse  with  which 
every  doctor  is  supposed  to  be  familiar,  and 
some  eminent  doctors  have  claimed  to  dis- 
tinguish no  fewer  than  seventy-two.  In  the 
"Plain  Questions"  there  is  a  sentence  which 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  29 

points  towards  the  circulation  of  the  blood, — • 
"All  the  blood  is  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  heart,"  a  point  beyond  which  the  Chinese 
never  seem  to  have  pushed  their  investiga- 
tions; but  of  this  curious  feature  in  their 
civilization,  later  on. 

It  was  under  the  feudal  system,  perhaps  a 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  that  the  people 
of  China  began  to  possess  family  names. 
Previous  to  that  time  there  appear  to  have 
been  tribal  or  clan  names;  these  however 
were  not  in  ordinary  use  among  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  each  clan,  who  were 
known  by  their  personal  names  only,  be-^ 
stowed  upon  them  in  childhood  by  their 
parents.  Gradually,  it  became  customary  to 
prefix  to  the  personal  name  a  surname, 
adopted  generally  from  the  name  of  the 
place  where  the  family  lived,  sometimes 
from  an  appellation  or  oflScial  title  of  a  dis- 
tinguished ancestor;  places  in  China  never 
take  their  names  from  individuals,  as  with 
us,  and  consequently  there  are  no  such  names 
as  Faringdon  or  Gislingham,  the  homes  of 
the  Fearings  or  Gislings  of  old.  Thus,  to  use 
English  terms,  a  boy  who  had  been  called 
"Welcome"  by  his  parents  might  prefix  the 
name  of  the  place,  Cambridge,  where  he  was 
born,  and  call  himself  Cambridge  Welcome, 


30      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  surname  always  coming  first  in  Chinese, 
as,  for  instance,  in  Li  Hung-chang.  The 
Manchus,  it  must  be  remembered,  have  no 
surnames;  that  is  to  say,  they  do  not  use 
their  clan  or  family  names,  but  call  themselves 
by  their  personal  names  only. 
(  Chinese  surnames,  other  than  place  names, 
are  derived  from  a  variety  of  sources:  from 
nature,  as  River,  Stone,  Cave;  from  animals, 
as  Bear,  Sheep,  Dragon;  from  birds,  as  Swal- 
low, Pheasant;  from  the  body,  as  Long-ears, 
Squint-eye;  from  colours,  as  Black,  White; 
from  trees  and  flowers,  as  Hawthorn,  Leaf, 
Reed,  Forest;  and  others,  such  as  Rich,  East, 
Sharp,  Hope,  Duke,  Stern,  Tepid,  Money, 
etc.  By  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  the 
use  of  surnames  had  become  definitely  estab- 
lished for  all  classes,  whereas  in  Europe  sur- 
names were  not  known  until  about  the 
twelfth  century  after  Christ,  and  even  then 
were  confined  to  persons  of  wealth  and  posi- 
tion. There  is  a  small  Chinese  book,  studied 
by  every  schoolboy  and  entitled  The  Hundred 
Surnames,  the  word  "hundred"  being  com- 
monly used  in  a  generally  comprehensive  sense. 
It  actually  contains  about  four  hundred  of 
the   names   which   occur   most  frequently. 

About    two    hundred    and    twenty    years 
before  Christ,  the  feudal  system  came  to  an 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  31 

end.  One  aggressive  state  gradually  swal- 
lowed up  all  the  others;  and  under  the  rule 
of  its  sovereign,  China  became  once  more  an 
empire,  and  such  it  has  ever  since  remained. 
But  although  always  an  empire,  the  throne, 
during  the  past  two  thousand  years,  has 
passed  many  times  from  one  house  to  another. 
The  extraordinary  man  who  led  his  state 
to  victory  over  each  rival  in  turn,  and  ulti- 
mately mounted  the  throne  to  rule  over  a 
united  China,  finds  his  best  historical  coun- 
terpart in  Napoleon.  He  called  himself  the 
First  Emperor,  and  began  by  sending  an  army 
of  300,000  men  to  fight  against  an  old  and 
dreaded  enemy  on  the  north,  recently  identi- 
fied beyond  question  with  the  Huns.  He  dis- 
patched a  fleet  to  search  for  some  mysterious 
islands  off  the  coast,  thought  by  some  to  be 
the  islands  which  form  Japan.  He  built  the 
Great  Wall,  to  a  great  extent  by  means  of 
convict  labour,  malefactors  being  condemned 
to  long  terms  of  penal  servitude  on  the  works. 
His  copper  coinage  was  so  uniformly  good 
that  the  cowry  disappeared  altogether  from 
commerce  during  his  reign.  Above  all  things 
he  desired  to  impart  a  fresh  stimulus  to 
literary  effort,  but  he  adopted  singularly  un- 
fortunate means  to  secure  this  desirable  end; 
for,  listening  to  the  insidious  flattery  of  cour- 


32        THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

tiers,  he  determined  that  hterature  should 
begin  anew  with  his  reign.  He  therefore 
determined  to  destroy  all  existing  books, 
finally  deciding  to  spare  those  connected 
with  three  important  departments  of  human 
knowledge:  namely,  (1)  works  which  taught 
the  people  to  plough,  sow,  reap,  and  provide 
food  for  the  race;  (2)  works  on  the  use  of 
drugs  and  on  the  healing  art;  and  (3)  works 
on  the  various  methods  of  foretelling 
the  future  which  might  lead  men  to  act 
in  accordance  with,  and  not  in  opposition 
to,  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  as  seen 
in  the  operations  of  Nature.  Stringent 
orders  were  issued  accordingly,  and  many 
scholars  were  put  to  death  for  concealing 
books  in  the  hope  that  the  storm  would 
blow  over.  Numbers  of  valuable  works 
perished  in  a  vast  conflagration  of  books, 
and  the  only  wonder  is  that  any  were  pre- 
served, with  the  exception  of  the  three 
classes  specified  above. 

In  210  B.C.  the  First  Emperor  died,  and 
his  youngest  son  was  placed  upon  the  throne 
with  the  title  of  Second  Emperor.  The  latter 
began  by  carrying  out  the  funeral  arrange- 
ments of  his  father,  as  described  about  a 
century  later  by  the  first  and  greatest  of 
China's  historians: — 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  33 

"In  the  9th  moon  the  First  Emperor  was 
buried  in  Mount  Li,  which  in  the  early  days 
of  his  reign  he  had  caused  to  be  tunnelled 
and  prepared  with  that  view.  Then,  when 
he  had  consolidated  the  empire,  he  employed 
his  soldiery,  to  the  number  of  700,000,  to 
bore  down  to  the  Three  Springs  (that  is, 
until  water  was  reached),  and  there  a  firm 
foundation  was  laid  and  the  sarcophagus 
placed  thereon.  Rare  objects  and  costly 
jewels  were  collected  from  the  palaces  and 
from  the  various  officials,  and  were  carried 
thither  and  stored  in  huge  quantities.  Ar- 
tificers were  ordered  to  construct  mechanical 
crossbows,  which,  if  any  one  were  to  enter, 
would  immediately  discharge  their  arrows. 
With  the  aid  of  quicksilver,  rivers  were  made 
— the  Yangtsze,  the  Yellow  River,  and  the! 
great  ocean — the  metal  being  made  to  flow 
from  one  into  the  other  by  machinery.  On 
the  roof  were  delineated  the  constellations  of 
the  sky,  on  the  floor  the  geographical  divisions 
of  the  earth.  Candles  were  made  from  the  fat 
of  the  man-fish  (walrus),  calculated  to  last 
for  a  very  long  time.  The  Second  Emperor 
said:  *It  is  not  fitting  that  the  concubines 
of  my  late  father  who  are  without  children 
should  leave  him  now;'  and  accordingly  he 
ordered  them  to  accompany  the  dead  mon- 


34      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

arch  to  the  next  world,  those  who  thus 
perished  being  many  in  number.  When  the 
interment  was  completed,  some  one  sug- 
gested that  the  workmen  who  had  made  the 
machinery  and  concealed  the  treasure  knew 
the  great  value  of  the  latter,  and  that  the 
secret  would  leak  out.  Therefore,  so  soon 
as  the  ceremony  was  over,  and  the  path  giv- 
ing access  to  the  sarcophagus  had  been 
blocked  up  at  its  innermost  end,  the  outside 
gate  at  the  entrance  to  this  path  was  let  fall, 
and  the  mausoleum  was  eflPectually  closed, 
so  that  not  one  of  the  workmen  escaped. 
Trees  and  grass  were  then  planted  around, 
that  the  spot  might  look  like  the  rest  of  the 
mountain.'* 

The  career  of  the  Second  Emperor  finds 
an  apt  parallel  in  that  of  Richard  Cromwell, 
except  that  the  former  was  put  to  death, 
after  a  short  and  inglorious  reign.  Then  fol- 
lowed a  dynasty  which  has  left  an  indelible 
mark  upon  the  civilization  as  well  as  on  the 
recorded  history  of  China.  A  peasant,  by 
mere  force  of  character,  succeeded  after  a 
three-years'  struggle  in  establishing  himself 
upon  the  throne,  206  B.C.,  and  his  posterity, 
known  as  the  House  of  Han,  ruled  over 
China  for  four  hundred  years,  accidentally 
divided  into  two  nearly  equal  portions  by 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  35 

the  Christian  era,  about  which  date  there 
occurred  a  temporary  usurpation  of  the 
throne  which  for  some  time  threatened  the 
stability  of  the  dynasty  in  the  direct  Kne  of 
succession.  To  this  date,  the  more  northern 
Chinese  have  no  prouder  title  than  that  of 
a  "son  of  Han." 

During  the  whole  period  of  four  hundred 
years  the  empire  cannot  be  said  to  have 
enjoyed  complete  tranquillity  either  at  home 
or  abroad.  There  were  constant  wars  with 
the  Tartar  tribes  on  the  north,  against  whom 
the  Great  Wall  proved  to  be  a  somewhat 
ineffectual  barrier.  Also  with  the  Huns,  the 
forebears  of  the  Turks,  who  once  succeeded 
in  shutting  up  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  in 
one  of  his  own  cities,  from  which  he  only 
escaped  by  a  stratagem  to  be  related  in  an- 
other connexion.  There  were  in  addition 
wars  with  Korea,  the  ultimate  conquest  of 
which  led  to  the  discovery  of  Japan,  then  at 
a  low  level  of  civilization  and  unable  to  enter 
into  official  relations  with  China  until  a.da 
57,  when  an  embassy  was  sent  for  the  first 
time.  Those  who  are  accustomed  to  think 
of  the  Chinese  as  an  eminently  unwarlike 
nation  will  perhaps  be  surprised  to  hear  that 
before  the  end  of  the  second  century  B.C. 
they  had  carried  their  victorious  arms  far 


36      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

away  into  Central  Asia,  annexing  even  the 
Pamirs  and  Kokand  to  the  empire.  The 
wild  tribes  of  modern  Yunnan  were  reduced 
to  subjection,  and  their  territory  may  fur- 
ther be  considered  as  added  from  about  this 
period. 

At  home,  the  eunuchs  gave  an  immense 
deal  of  trouble  by  their  restless  spirit  of 
intrigue;  besides  which,  for  nearly  twenty 
years  the  Imperial  power  was  in  the  hands  of 
a  famous  usurper,  named  Wang  Mang  (pro- 
nounced Wahng  Mahng),  who  had  secured  it 
by  the  usual  means  of  treachery  and  poison, 
to  lose  it  on  the  battle-field  and  himself  to 
perish  shortly  afterwards  in  a  revolt  of  his 
own  soldiery.  But  the  most  remarkable  of 
all  events  connected  with  the  Han  dynasty 
was  the  extended  revival  of  learning  and 
authorship.  Texts  of  the  Confucian  Canon 
were  rescued  from  hiding-places  in  which 
they  had  been  concealed  at  the  risk  of  death; 
editing  committees  were  appointed,  and  im- 
mense efforts  were  made  to  repair  the  mis- 
chief sustained  by  literature  at  the  hands  of 
the  First  Emperor.  The  scholars  of  the  day 
expounded  the  teachings  of  Confucius  as  set 
forth  in  these  texts;  and  although  their 
explanations  were  set  aside  in  the  twelfth 
century,  when  an  entirely  new  set  of  inter- 


THE  FEUDAL  AGE  37 

pretations  became  (and  remain)  the  ac- 
cepted standard  for  all  students,  it  is  mostly 
due  to  those  early  efforts  that  the  Confucian 
Canon  has  exercised  such  a  deep  and  lasting 
influence  over  the  minds  of  the  Chinese  peo- 
ple. Unfortunately,  it  soon  became  the 
fashion  to  discover  old  texts,  and  many 
works  are  now  in  circulation  which  have  no 
claim  whatever  to  the  antiquity  to  which 
they  pretend. 

During  the  four  hundred  years  of  Han 
supremacy  the  march  of  civilization  went 
steadily  forward.  Paper  and  ink  were  in- 
vented, and  also  the  camel's-hair  brush,  both 
of  which  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  arts  of 
writing  and  painting,  the  latter  being  still 
in  a  very  elementary  stage.  The  custom  of 
burying  slaves  with  the  dead  was  abolished 
early  in  the  dynasty.  The  twenty-seven 
months  of  mourning  for  parents — nominally 
three  years,  as  is  now  again  the  rule — was 
reduced  to  a  more  manageable  period  of 
twenty-seven  days.  Literary  degrees  were 
first  established,  and  perpetual  hereditary 
rank  was  conferred  upon  the  senior  descend- 
ant of  Confucius  in  the  male  line,  which  has 
continued  in  unbroken  succession  down  to 
the  present  day.  The  head  of  the  Confucian 
clan  is  now  a  duke,  and  resides  in  a  palace. 


38      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

taking  rank  with,  if  not  before,  the  highest 
provincial  authorities. 

The  extended  mihtary  campaigns  in  Cen- 
tral Asia  during  this  period  brought  China 
into  touch  with  Bactria,  then  an  outlying 
province  of  ancient  Greece.  From  this  last 
source,  the  Chinese  learnt  many  things 
which  are  now  often  regarded  as  of  purely 
native  growth.  They  imported  the  grape, 
and  made  from  it  a  wine  which  was  in  use 
for  many  centuries,  disappearing  only  about 
two  or  three  hundred  years  ago.  Formerly 
dependent  on  the  sun-dial  alone,  the  Chinese 
now  found  themselves  in  possession  of  the 
water-clock,  specimens  of  which  are  still  to 
be  seen  in  full  working  order,  whereby  the 
division  of  the  day  into  twelve  two-hour 
periods  was  accurately  determined.  The 
calendar  was  regulated  anew,  and  the  science 
of  music  was  reconstructed;  in  fact,  modern 
Chinese  music  may  be  said  to  approximate 
closely  to  the  music  of  ancient  Greece.  Be- 
cause of  the  difference  of  scale,  Chinese  music 
does  not  make  any  appeal  to  Western  ears; 
at  any  rate,  not  in  the  sense  in  which  it  ap- 
pealed to  Confucius,  who  has  left  it  on  record 
that  after  listening  to  a  certain  melody  he 
was  so  affected  as  not  to  be  able  to  taste 
meat  for  three  months. 


CHAPTER  II 

LAW  AND   GOVERNMENT 

In  the  earliest  ages  of  which  history  pro- 
fesses to  take  cognizance,  persons  who 
wished  to  dispose  of  their  goods  were  obKged 
to  have  recourse  to  barter.  By  and  by  shells 
were  adopted  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  and 
then  pieces  of  stamped  silk,  linen,  and  deer- 
skin. These  were  followed  by  circular  discs 
of  copper,  pierced  with  a  round  hole,  the 
forerunners  of  the  ordinary  copper  coins  of 
a  century  or  two  later,  which  had  square 
holes,  and  bore  inscriptions,  as  they  still  do 
in  the  present  day.  Money  was  also  cast  in 
the  shape  of  "knives"  and  of  "trousers,"  by 
which  names  specimens  of  this  early  coinage 
(mostly  fakes)  are  known  to  connoisseurs. 
Some  of  these  were  beautifully  finished,  and 
even  inlaid  with  gold.  Early  in  the  ninth 
century,  bills  of  exchange  came  into  use; 
and  from  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century 
paper  money  became  quite  common,  and 
is  still  in  general  use  all  over  China,  notes 

S9 


40      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

being  issued  in  some  places  for  amounts  less 
even  than  a  shilling. 

Measures  of  length  and  capacity  were 
fixed  by  the  Chinese  after  an  exceedingly 
simple  process.  The  grain  of  millet,  which  is 
fairly  uniform  in  size,  was  taken  as  the  unit 
of  both.  Ten  of  these  grains,  laid  end-ways, 
formed  the  inch,  ten  of  which  made  a  foot, 
and  ten  feet  a  chang.  The  decimal  system 
has  always  prevailed  in  China,  with  one 
curious  exception:  sixteen  ounces  make  a 
pound.  How  this  came  to  be  so  does  not 
appear  to  be  known;  but  in  this  case  it  is  the 
pound  which  is  the  unit  of  weight,  and  not 
the  lower  denomination.  The  word  which 
for  more  than  twenty  centuries  has  signified 
"  pound '*  to  the  Chinese,  was  originally  the 
rude  picture  of  an  axe-head;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  axe-heads,  being  all  of  the  same 
size,  were  used  in  weighing  commodities, 
and  were  subsequently  split,  for  conven- 
ience* sake,  into  sixteen  equal  parts,  each 
about  one-third  heavier  than  the  English 
ounce.  For  measures  of  capacity,  we  must 
revert  to  the  millet-grain,  a  fixed  number  of 
which  set  the  standard  for  Chinese  pints  and 
quarts.  The  result  of  this  rule-of-thumb 
calculation  has  been  that  weights  and  meas- 
ures  vary   all   over   the   empire,    although 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  41 

there  actually  exist  an  official  foot,  pound 
and  pint,  as  recognized  by  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment. In  one  and  the  same  city  a  tailor's 
foot  will  differ  from  a  carpenter's  foot,  an 
oilman's  pint  from  a  spirit-merchant's  pint, 
and  so  on.  The  final  appeal  is  to  local 
custom. 

With  the  definitive  establishment  of  the 
monarchy,  two  hundred  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  a  system  of  government  was 
inaugurated  which  has  proceeded,  so  far  as 
essentials  are  concerned,  upon  almost  uni- 
form lines  down  to  the  present  day. 

It  is  an  ancient  and  well-recognized  prin- 
ciple in  China,  that  every  inch  of  soil  belongs 
to  the  sovereign;  consequently,  all  land  is 
held  on  consideration  of  a  land-tax  payable 
to  the  emperor,  and  so  long  as  this  tax  is 
forthcoming,  the  land  in  question  is  practi- 
cally freehold,  and  can  be  passed  by  sale 
from  hand  to  hand  for  a  small  conveyancing 
fee  to  the  local  authorities  who  stamp  the 
deeds.  Thus,  the  foreign  concessions  or 
settlements  in  China  were  not  sold  or  parted 
with  in  any  way  by  the  Chinese;  they  were 
"leased  in  perpetuity"  so  long  as  the  ground- 
rent  is  paid,  and  remain  for  all  municipal 
and  such  purposes  under  the  uncontrolled 
administration  of  the  nation   which  leased 


oo 


42      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

them.  The  land-tax  may  be  regarded  as  the 
backbone  of  Chinese  finance;  but  although 
nominally  collected  at  a  fixed  rate,  it  is  sub- 
ject to  fluctuations  due  to  bad  harvests 
and  like  visitations,  in  which  cases  the  tax 
is  accepted  at  a  lower  rate,  in  fact  at  any 
rate  the  people  can  aflFord  to  pay. 

The  salt  and  other  monopolies,  together 
with  the  customs,  also  contribute  an  im- 
portant part  of  China's  revenue.  There  is 
the  old  native  customs  service,  with  its 
stations  and  barriers  all  over  the  empire,  and 
the  foreign  customs  service,  as  established 
at  the  treaty  ports  only,  in  order  to  deal 
with  shipments  on  foreign  vessels  trading 
with  China.  The  traditional  and  well- 
marked  lines  of  taxation  are  freely  accepted 
by  the  people;  any  attempt,  however,  to 
increase  the  amounts  to  be  levied,  or  to  in- 
troduce new  charges  of  any  kind,  unless 
duly  authorized  by  the  people  themselves, 
would  be  at  once  sternly  resisted.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  authorities  never  run 
any  such  risks.  It  is  customary,  when  ab- 
solutely necessary,  and  possibly  desirable,  to 
increase  old  or  to  introduce  new  levies,  for 
the  local  authorities  to  invite  the  leading 
merchants  and  others  concerned  to  a  private 
conference;  and  only  when  there  is  a  general 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  43 

consent  of  all  parties  do  the  oflScials  venture 
to  put  forth  proclamations  saying  that  such 
and  such  a  tax  will  be  increased  or  imposed, 
as  the  case  may  be.  Any  other  method  may 
lead  to  disastrous  results.  The  people  re- 
fuse to  pay;  and  coercion  is  met  at  once  by 
a  general  closing  of  shops  and  stoppage  of 
trade,  or,  in  more  serious  cases,  by  an  attack 
on  the  oflScial  residence  of  the  offending 
mandarin,  who  soon  sees  his  house  looted 
and  levelled  with  the  ground.  In  other 
words,  the  Chinese  people  tax  themselves. 

The  nominal  form  of  government,  speak- 
ing without  reference  to  the  new  constitu- 
tion which  will  be  dealt  with  later  on,  is  an 
irresponsible  autocracy;  its  institutions  are 
likewise  autocratic  in  form,  but  democratic 
in  operation.  The  philosopherj,  Mencius 
(372-289  B.C.),  placed  the  people  first,  the 
gods  second,  and  the  sovereign  third,  in  the 
scale  of  national  importance;  and  this  classi- 
fication has  sunk  deep  into  the  minds  of  the 
Chinese  during  more  than  two  thousand 
years  past.  What  the  people  in  China  will 
not  stand  is  injustice;  at  the  same  time  they 
will  live  contentedly  under  harsh  laws  which 
they  have  at  one  time  or  another  imposed 
upon  themselves. 

Each  of  the  great  dynasties  has  always 


44      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

begun  witli  a  Penal  Code  of  its  own,  based 
upon  that  of  the  outgoing  dynasty,  but 
^tending  to  be  more  and  more  humane  in 
character  as  time  goes  on.  The  punishments 
in  old  days  were  atrocious  in  their  severity; 
the  Penal  Code  of  the  present  dynasty, 
which  came  into  force  some  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  has  been  pronounced  by 
competent  judges  to  take  a  very  high  rank 
indeed.  It  was  introduced  to  replace  a 
much  harsher  code  which  had  been  in  opera- 
tion under  the  Ming  dynasty,  and  contains 
the  nominally  immutable  statute  laws  of 
the  empire,  with  such  modifications  and 
restrictions  as  have  been  authorized  from 
time  to  time  by  Imperial  edict.  Still  farther 
back  in  Chinese  history,  we  come  upon 
punishments  of  ruthless  cruelty,  such  as 
might  be  expected  to  prevail  in  times  of 
lesser  culture  and  refinement.  Two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  the  Five  Punishments  were 
— ^branding  on  the  forehead,  cutting  oflF  the 
nose,  cutting  off  the  feet,  mutilation,  and 
death;  for  the  past  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  these  have  been — beating  with  the 
light  bamboo,  beating  with  the  heavy  bam- 
boo, transportation  for  a  certain  period, 
banishment  to  a  certain  distance,  and  death, 
the   last   being   subdivided   into   strangling 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  45 

and  decapitation,  according  to  the  gravity 
of  the  offence. 

Two  actual  instruments  of  torture  are 
mentioned,  one  for  compressing  the  ankle- 
bones,  and  the  other  for  squeezing  the 
fingers,  to  be  used  if  necessary  to  extort  a 
confession  in  charges  of  robbery  and  homi- 
cide, confession  being  regarded  as  essential 
to  the  completion  of  the  record.  The  appli- 
cation, however,  of  these  tortures  is  fenced 
round  in  such  a  way  as  to  impose  great  re- 
sponsibility upon  the  presiding  magistrate; 
and  in  addition  to  the  risk  of  oflBcial  im- 
peachment, there  is  the  more  dreaded  cer- 
tainty of  loss  of  influence  and  of  popular 
esteem.  Mention  is  made  in  the  code  of 
the  so-called  "lingering  death,"  according  to 
which  first  one  arm  is  chopped  off,  then  the 
other;  the  two  legs  follow  in  the  same  way; 
two  slits  are  made  on  the  breast,  and  the 
heart  is  torn  out;  decapitation  finishes  the 
proceedings.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that, 
although  many  foreigners  have  been  present 
from  time  to  time  at  public  executions, 
occasionally  when  the  "lingering  death"  has 
been  announced,  not  one  has  established  it 
as  a  fact  beyond  a  doubt  that  such  a  process 
has  ever  been  carried  out.  Not  only  that; 
it  is  also  well  known  that  condemned  crim- 


46      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

inals  are  allowed  to  purchase  of  themselves, 
or  through  their  friends,  if  they  have  any, 
spirits  or  opium  with  which  to  fortify  their 
courage  at  the  last  moment.  There  is  in- 
deed a  tradition  that  stupefying  drinks  are 
served  out  by  the  officials  to  the  batches  of 
malefactors  as  they  pass  to  the  execution 
ground  at  Peking.  It  would  still  remain  to 
find  executioners  capable  of  performing  in 
cold  blood  such  a  disgusting  operation  as 
the  "lingering  death"  is  supposed  to  be. 
The  ordinary  Chinaman  is  not  a  fiend;  he 
does  not  gloat  in  his  peaceful  moments,  when 
'jnot  under  the  influence  of  extreme  excite- 
ment, over  bloodshed  and  cruelty. 

The  generally  lenient  spirit  in  which  the 
Penal  Code  of  China  was  conceived  is  either 
widely  unknown,  or  very  often  ignored.  For 
instance,  during  the  excessive  summer  heats 
certain  punishments  are  mitigated,  and  others 
remitted  altogether.  Prompt  surrender  and 
acknowledgment  of  an  offence,  before  it  is 
otherwise  discovered,  entitles  the  offender, 
with  some  exceptions,  to  a  full  and  free 
pardon;  as  also  does  restitution  of  stolen 
property  to  its  owner  by  a  repentant  thief; 
while  a  criminal  guilty  of  two  or  more  offences 
can  be  punished  only  to  the  extent  of  the 
principal  charge.     Neither  are  the  near  rela- 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  47 

lives,  nor  even  the  servants,  of  a  guilty  man, 
punishable  for  concealing  his  crime  and  as- 
sisting him  to  escape.  Immense  allowances 
are  made  for  the  weakness  of  human  nature, 
in  all  of  which  may  be  detected  the  tempering 
doctrines  of  the  great  Sage.  A  feudal  baron 
was  boasting  to  Confucius  that  in  his  part 
of  the  country  the  people  were  so  upright 
that  a  son  would  give  evidence  against  a 
father  who  had  stolen  a  sheep.  "With  us,'* 
replied  Confucius,  "the  father  screens  the 
son,  and  the  son  screens  the  father;  that  is 
real  uprightness."  To  another  questioner,  a 
man  in  high  authority,  who  complained  of 
the  number  of  thieves,  the  Master  explained 
that  this  was  due  to  the  greed  of  the  upper 
classes.  "But  for  this  greed,"  he  added, 
"even  if  you  paid  people  to  steal,  they  would 
not  do  so."  To  the  same  man,  who  inquired 
his  views  on  capital  punishment,  Confucius  ^ 
replied:  "What  need  is  there  for  capital'! 
punishment  at  all?  If  your  aims  are  worthy, ! 
the  people  also  will  be  worthy." 

There  are  many  other  striking  features  of 
the  Penal  Code.  No  marriage,  for  instance, 
may  be  contracted  during  the  period  of 
mourning  for  parents,  which  in  theory  extends 
to  three  full  years,  but  in  practice  is  reckoned 
at  twenty-seven  months;  neither  may  musical 


48      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

instruments  be  played  by  near  relatives 
of  the  dead.  During  the  same  period,  no 
mandarin  may  hold  office,  but  must  retire 
into  private  life;  though  the  observance  of 
this  rule  is  often  dispensed  with  in  the  case 
of  high  officials  whose  presence  at  their  posts 
may  be  of  considerable  importance.  In  such 
cases,  by  special  grace  of  the  emperor,  the 
period  of  retirement  is  cut  down  to  three 
months,  or  even  to  one. 

The  death  of  an  emperor  is  followed  by  a 
long  spell  of  national  tribulation.  For  one 
hundred  days  no  man  may  have  his  head 
shaved,  and  no  woman  may  wear  head  orna- 
ments. For  twelve  months  there  may  be  no 
marrying  or  giving  in  marriage  among  the 
official  classes,  a  term  which  is  reduced  to 
one  hundred  days  for  the  public  at  large. 
The  theatres  are  supposed  to  remain  closed 
for  a  year,  but  in  practice  they  shut  only  for 
one  hundred  days.  Even  thus  great  hard- 
ships are  entailed  upon  many  classes  of  the 
community,  especially  upon  actors  and  bar- 
bers, who  might  be  in  danger  of  actual  star- 
vation but  for  the  common-sense  of  their 
rulers  coupled  with  the  common  rice-pot  at 
home. 

The  law  forbidding  marriage  between  per- 
sons of  the  same  surname  is  widely,  but  not 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  49 

universally,  in  operation.  No  Smith  may 
marry  a  Smith;  no  Jones  may  marry  a  Jones; 
the  reason  of  course  being  that  all  of  the 
same  surname  are  regarded  as  members  of 
the  same  family.  However,  there  are  large 
districts  in  certain  parts  of  China  where  the 
people  are  one  and  all  of  the  same  surname, 
and  where  it  would  be  a  great  hardship — not 
to  mention  the  impossibility  of  enforcing  the 
law — if  intermarriages  of  the  kind  were  pro- 
hibited. Consequently,  they  are  allowed, 
but  only  if  the  contracting  parties  are  so 
distantly  related  that,  according  to  the  legal 
table  of  affinity,  they  would  not  wear  mourn- 
ing for  one  another  in  case  of  death — in  other 
words,  not  related  at  all.  The  line  of  descent 
is  now  traced  through  the  males,  but  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  in  early  days,  as  is 
found  to  be  often  the  case  among  uncivilized 
tribes,  the  important,  because  more  easily 
recognizable,  parent  was  the  mother.  Thus 
it  is  illegal  for  first  cousins  of  the  same  sur- 
name to  marry,  and  legal  if  the  surnames 
are  different;  in  the  latter  case,  however, 
centuries  of  experience  have  taught  the 
Chinese  to  frown  upon  such  unions  as  un- 
desirable in  the  extreme. 

The  Penal  Code  forbids  water  burial,  and 
also  cremation;  but  it  is  permitted  to  the 


50      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

children  of  a  man  dying  at  a  great  distance 
to  consume  their  father's  corpse  with  fire 
if  positively  unable  to  bring  it  back  for 
ordinary  burial  in  his  native  district.  The 
idea  is  that  with  the  aid  of  fire  immediate 
communication  is  set  up  with  the  spirit- 
world,  and  that  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  is 
thus  enabled  to  reach  his  native  place,  which 
would  be  impossible  were  the  corpse  to  re- 
main intact.  Hence  the  horror  of  dying 
abroad,  common  to  all  Chinese,  and  only 
faced  if  there  is  a  reasonable  probability  that 
their  remains  will  be  carried  back  to  the 
ancestral  home. 

In  spite  of  the  above  law,  the  cremation 
of  Buddhist  priests  is  universal,  and  the 
practice  is  tolerated  without  protest.  Priests 
who  are  getting  on  in  years,  or  who  are 
stricken  with  a  mortal  disease,  are  compelled 
by  rule  to  move  into  a  certain  part  of  their 
monastery,  known  as  the  Abode  of  a  Long 
Old  Age,  in  which  they  are  required — not  to 
die,  for  death  does  not  come  to  a  good  priest, 
but — ^to  enter  into  Nirvana,  which  is  a  sub- 
lime state  of  conscious  freedom  from  all 
mental  and  physical  disturbance,  not  to  be 
adequately  described  in  words.  At  death, 
the  priest  is  placed  in  a  chair,  his  chin  sup- 
ported by  a  crutch,  and  then  put  into  a 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  51 

wooden  box,  which  on  the  appointed  day  is 
carried  in  procession,  with  streaming  banners, 
through  the  monastery,  and  out  into  the 
cremation-ground  attached,  his  brother  priests 
chanting  all  the  while  that  portion  of  the 
Buddhist  liturgies  set  apart  as  the  service  for 
the  dead,  but  which  being  in  Pali,  not  a 
single  one  of  them  can  understand.  There 
have,  of  course,  been  many  highly  educated 
priests  at  one  time  and  another  during  the 
long  reign  of  Buddhism  in  China;  but  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  they  are  no  longer  to  be  met 
with  at  the  present  day.  The  Buddhist  lit- 
urgies have  been  written  out  in  Chinese 
characters  which  reproduce  the  sounds  of  the 
original  Indian  language,  and  these  the  priests 
learn  by  heart  without  understanding  a  word 
of  the  meaning.  The  box  with  the  dead  man 
in  it  is  now  hoisted  to  the  top  of  a  funeral 
pyre,  which  has  been  well  drenched  with  oil, 
and  set  alight;  and  when  the  fire  has  burnt 
out,  the  ashes  are  reverently  collected  and 
placed  in  an  urn,  which  is  finally  deposited  in 
a  mausoleum  kept  for  that  purpose. 

Life  is  remarkably  safe  in  China.  No  man 
can  be  executed  until  his  name  has  been 
submitted  to  the  emperor,  which  of  course 
means  to  his  ministers  at  the  capital.  The 
Chinese,  however,  being,  as  has  been  so  often 


52      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

stated,  an  eminently  practical  people,  under- 
stand that  certain  cases  admit  of  no  delay; 
and  to  prevent  the  inevitable  lynching  of  such 
criminals  as  kidnappers,  rebels,  and  others, 
caught  red-handed,  high  officials  are  entrusted 
with  the  power  of  life  and  death,  which  they 
can  put  into  immediate  operation,  always 
taking  upon  themselves  full  responsibility  for 
their  acts.  The  essential  is  to  allay  any 
excitement  of  the  populace,  and  to  preserve 
the  public  peace. 

In  the  general  administration  of  the  law 
great  latitude  is  allowed,  and  injustice  is 
rarely  inflicted  by  a  too  literal  interpretation 
of  the  Code.  Stealing  is  of  course  a  crime, 
yet  no  Chinese  magistrate  would  dream  of 
punishing  a  hungry  man  for  simple  theft  of 
food,  even  if  such  a  case  were  ever  brought 
into  court.  Cake-sellers  keep  a  sharp  eye 
on  their  wares;  farmers  and  market-gardeners 
form  associations  for  mutual  protection,  and 
woe  to  the  thief  who  gets  caught — his  punish- 
ment is  short  and  sharp.  Litigation  is  not 
encouraged,  even  by  such  facilities  as  ought 
to  be  given  to  persons  suffering  wrongs;  there 
is  no  bar,  or  legal  profession,  and  persons  who 
assist  plaintiffs  or  defendants  in  the  conduct 
of  cases,  are  treated  with  scant  courtesy  by 
the  presiding  magistrate  and  are  lucky  if  they 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  53 

get  oflF  with  nothing  worse.  The  majority 
of  commercial  cases  come  before  the  guilds, 
and  are  settled  without  reference  to  the 
authorities.  The  ordinary  Chinese  dread  a 
court  of  justice,  as  a  place  in  which  both 
parties  manage  to  lose  something.  "It  is 
not  the  big  devil,"  according  to  the  current 
saying,  "but  the  little  devils"  who  frighten 
the  suitor  away.  This  is  because  oflScial 
servants  receive  no  salary,  but  depend  for 
their  livelihood  on  perquisites  and  tips;  and 
the  Chinese  suitor,  who  is  a  party  to  the 
system,  readily  admits  that  it  is  necessary 
"to  sprinkle  a  little  water." 

Neither  do  any  oflScials  in  China,  high  or 
low,  receive  salaries,  although  absurdly  inade- 
quate sums  are  allocated  by  the  Government 
for  that  purpose,  for  which  it  is  considered 
prudent  not  to  apply.  The  Chinese  system 
is  to  some  extent  the  reverse  of  our  own. 
Our  officials  collect  money  and  pay  it  into 
the  Treasury,  from  which  source  fixed  sums 
are  returned  to  them  as  salaries.  In  China, 
the  occupants  of  petty  posts  collect  revenue 
in  various  ways,  as  taxes  or  fees,  pay  them- 
selves as  much  as  they  dare,  and  hand  up  the 
balance  to  a  superior  officer,  who  in  turn  pays 
himself  in  the  same  sense,  and  again  hands 
up  the  balance  to  his  superior  officer.     When 


54      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  viceroy  of  a  province  is  reached,  he  too 
keeps  what  he  dares,  sending  up  to  the 
Imperial  exchequer  in  Peking  just  enough 
to  satisfy  the  powers  above  him.  There  is 
thus  a  continual  check  by  the  higher  grade 
upon  the  lower,  but  no  check  on  such  extor- 
tion as  might  be  practised  upon  the  tax-payer. 
The  tax-payer  sees  to  that  himself.  Speaking 
generally,  it  may  be  said  that  this  system,  in 
spite  of  its  unsatisfactory  character,  works 
fairly  well.  Few  officials  overstep  the  limits 
which  custom  has  assigned  to  their  posts,  and 
those  who  do  generally  come  to  grief.  So 
that  when  the  dishonesty  of  the  Chinese 
officials  is  held  up  to  reprobation,  it  should 
always  be  remembered  that  the  financial 
side  of  their  public  service  is  not  surrounded 
with  such  formalities  and  safeguards  as  to 
make  robbery  of  public  money  difficult,  if  not 
almost  impossible.  It  is,  therefore,  all  the 
more  cheering  when  we  find,  as  is  frequently 
the  case,  retiring  or  transferred  mandarins 
followed  by  the  good  wishes  and  affection  of 
the  people  over  whom  they  have  been  set  to 
rule. 

Until  quite  recently,  there  has  been  no  such 
thing  in  China  as  municipal  administration 
and  rating,  and  even  now  such  methods  are 
only  being  tentatively  introduced  in  large 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  55 

cities  where  there  are  a  number  of  foreign 
residents.  Occupants  of  houses  are  popularly 
supposed  to  "sweep  the  snow  from  their  own 
doorsteps,"  but  the  repair  of  roads,  bridges, 
drains,  etc.,  has  always  been  left  to  the 
casual  philanthropy  of  wealthy  individuals, 
who  take  these  opportunities  of  satisfying 
public  opinion  in  regard  to  the  obligations 
of  the  rich  towards  the  poor.  Consequently, 
Chinese  cities  are  left  without  efficient  light- 
ing, draining,  or  scavengering;  and  it  is 
astonishing  how  good  the  health  of  the  people 
living  under  these  conditions  can  be.  There 
is  no  organized  police  force;  but  cities  are 
divided  into  wards,  and  at  certain  points 
barriers  are  drawn  across  the  streets  at  night, 
with  perhaps  one  watchman  to  each.  It  is 
not  considered  respectable  to  be  out  late  at 
night,  and  it  is  not  safe  to  move  about  with- 
out a  lantern,  which  is  carried,  for  those  who 
can  aflford  the  luxury,  by  a  servant  preced- 
ing them. 

One  difference  between  life  in  China  and 
life  in  this  country  may  be  illustrated  to  a 
certain  extent  in  the  following  way.  Sup- 
posing a  traveller,  passing  through  an  English 
village,  to  be  hit  on  the  head  by  a  stone. 
Unless  he  can  point  out  his  assailant,  the 
matter  is  at  an  end.    In  China,  all  the  in- 


56      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

jured  party  has  to  do  is  to  point  out  the 
village — or,  if  a  town,  the  ward — in  which 
he  was  assaulted.  Then  the  headman  of 
such  town  or  ward  is  summoned  before  the 
authorities  and  fined,  proportionately  to  the 
offence,  for  allowing  rowdy  behaviour  in  his 
district.  The  headman  takes  good  care  that 
he  does  not  pay  the  fine  himself.  In  the 
same  way,  parents  are  held  responsible  for 
the  acts  of  their  children,  and  householders 
for  those  of  their  servants. 


^  CHAPTER  in 

BELIGION   AND   SUPERSTITION 

The  Chinese  are  emphatically  not  a  re- 
ligious people,  though  they  are  very  super- 
stitious. Belief  in  a  God  has  come  down  from 
the  remotest  ages,  but  the  old  simple  creed 
has  been  so  overlaid  by  Buddhism  as  not  to 
be  discernible  at  the  present  day.  Buddhism 
is  now  the  dominant  rehgion  of  China.  It 
is  closely  bound  up  with  the  lives  of  the 
people,  and  is  a  never-failing  refuge  in  sick- 
ness or  worldly  trouble.  It  is  no  longer  the 
subtle  doctrine  which  was  originally  pre- 
sented to  the  people  of  India,  but  something 
much  more  clearly  defined  and  appreciable 
by  the  plainest  intellect.  Buddha  is  the 
saviour  of  the  people  through  righteousness 
alone,  and  Buddhist  saints  are  popularly 
supposed  to  possess  intercessory  powers. 
Yet  reverence  is  always  wanting;  and  crowds 
will  laugh  and  talk,  and  buy  and  sell  sweet- 
meats, in  a  Buddhist  temple,  before  the  very 
eyes  of  the  most  sacred  images.    So  long  as 

57 


58      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

divine  intervention  is  not  required,  an  ordi- 
nary Chinaman  is  content  to  neglect  his 
divinities;  but  no  sooner  does  sickness 
or  financial  trouble  come  upon  the  family, 
than  he  will  hurry  oflF  to  propitiate  the 
gods. 

He  accomplishes  this  through  the  aid  of 
the  priests,  who  receive  his  offerings  of 
money,  and  light  candles  or  incense  at  the 
shrine  of  the  deity  to  be  invoked.  Buddhist 
priests  are  not  popular  with  the  Chinese, 
who  make  fun  of  their  shaven  heads,  and 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  their  convictions  as 
well  as  the  purity  of  their  lives.  "No  meat 
nor  wine  may  enter  here"  is  a  legend  in- 
scribed at  the  gate  of  most  Buddhist  tem- 
ples, the  ordinary  diet  as  served  in  the  re- 
fectory being  strictly  vegetarian.  A  tipsy 
priest,  however,  is  not  an  altogether  un- 
heard-of combination,  and  has  provided 
more  than  one  eminent  artist  with  a  subject 
for  an  interesting  picture. 

Yet  the  ordeal  through  which  a  novice 
must  pass  before  being  admitted  to  holy 
orders  is  a  severe  tax  upon  nerve  and  en- 
durance. In  the  process  of  a  long  ritual,  at 
least  three,  and  even  so  many  as  nine,  pas- 
tilles are  placed  upon  the  bald  scalp  of  the 
head.    These  are  then  lighted,  and  allowed 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     59 

to  burn  down  into  the  skin  until  permanent 
scars  have  been  formed,  the  unfortunate 
novice  being  supported  on  both  sides  by 
priests  who  encourage  him  all  the  time  to 
bear  what  must  be  excruciating  pain.  The 
fully  qualified  priest  receives  a  diploma,  on 
the  strength  of  which  he  may  demand  a 
day  and  a  night's  board  and  lodging  from 
the  priests  of  any  temple  all  over  the  empire. 
At  a  very  early  date  Buddhism  had  already 
taken  a  firm  hold  on  the  imagination  of 
Chinese  poets  and  painters,  the  latter  of 
whom  loved  to  portray  the  World-honoured 
One  in  a  dazzling  hue  of  gold.  A  poet  of 
the  eighth  century  a.d.,  who  realized  for  the 
first  time  the  inward  meaning  of  the  Law,  as 
it  is  called,  ended  a  panegyric  on  Buddhism 
with  the  following  lines: — 

O  thou  pure  Faith,  had  I  but  known  thy  scope. 
The  Golden  God  had  long  since  been  my  hope! 

Taoism  is  a  term  often  met  with  in  books 
about  China.  We  are  told  that  the  three 
religions  of  the  people  are  Confucianism, 
Buddhism  and  Taoism,  this  being  the  order 
of  precedence  assigned  to  them  in  a.d.  568. 
Confucianism  is  of  course  not  a  religion  at 
all,  dealing  as  it  does  with  duty  towards 
one's  neighbour  and  the  affairs  of  this  life 


60      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

only;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  Taoism,  in  its 
true  sense,  has  scarcely  a  stronger  claim.  At 
a  very  remote  day,  some  say  a  thousand, 
and  others  six  hundred,  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  there  flourished  a  wise  man 
named  Lao  Tzii,  which  may  be  approxi- 
mately pronounced  as  Lcudza  {ou  as  in  loud)y 
and  understood  to  mean  the  Old  Philoso- 
pher. He  was  a  very  original  thinker,  and 
a  number  of  his  sayings  have  been  preserved 
to  us  by  ancient  authors,  whom  they  had 
reached  by  tradition;  that  is  to  say,  the 
Old  Philosopher  never  put  his  doctrines  into 
book  form.  There  is  indeed  in  existence  a 
work  which  passes  under  his  name,  but  it  is 
now  known  to  be  a  forgery,  and  is  generally 
discarded  by  scholars. 

The  great  flaw  in  the  teaching  of  the  Old 
Philosopher  was  its  extremely  unpractical 
character,  its  unsuitability  to  the  needs  of 
men  and  women  engaged  in  the  ordinary 
avocations  of  life.  In  one  sense  he  was  an 
Anarchist,  for  he  held  that  the  empire  would 
fare  better  if  there  were  no  government  at 
all,  the  fact  being  that  violence  and  disorder 
had  always  been  conspicuous  even  under 
the  best  rulers.  Similarly,  he  argued  that 
we  should  get  along  more  profitably  with  less 
learning,  because  then  there  would  be  fewer 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     61 

thieves,  successful  thieving  being  the  result 
of  mental  training.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
follow  him  to  his  most  famous  doctrine, 
namely,  that  of  doing  nothing,  by  which 
means,  he  declared,  everything  could  be 
done,  the  solution  of  which  puzzle  he  left 
everybody  to  find  out  for  himself.  Among 
his  quaint  sayings  will  be  found  several 
maxims  of  a  very  diflferent  class,  as  witness 
his  injunction,  "Requite  evil  with  kindness,'* 
and  "Mighty  is  he  who  conquers  himself." 
Of  the  latter,  the  following  illustration  is 
given  by  a  commentator.  Two  men  meet- 
ing in  the  street,  one  said  to  the  other,  "How 
fat  you  have  grown!"  "Yes,"  replied  his 
friend,  "I  have  lately  won  a  battle."  "What 
do  you  mean.f^"  inquired  the  former.  "Why, 
you  see,"  said  the  latter,  "so  long  as  I  was 
at  home,  reading  about  ancient  kings,  I  ad- 
mired nothing  but  virtue;  then,  when  I  went 
out  of  doors,  I  was  attracted  by  the  charms 
of  wealth  and  power.  These  two  feelings 
fought  inside  me,  and  I  began  to  lose  flesh; 
but  now  love  of  virtue  has  conquered,  and  I 
am  fat." 

The  teachings  of  the  Old  Philosopher  were 
summed  up  in  the  word  Tao,  pronounced  as 
tou{t)^  which  originally  meant  a  road,  a  way; 
and  as  applied  to  doctrines  means  simply 


62      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  right  way  or  path  of  moral  conduct,  in 
which  mankind  should  tread  so  as  to  lead 
correct  and  virtuous  lives.  Later  on,  when 
Buddhism  was  introduced,  this  Taoism,  with 
all  its  paradoxes  and  subtleties,  to  which 
alchemy  and  the  concoction  of  an  elixir  of 
life  had  been  added,  gradually  began  to  lose 
its  hold  upon  the  people;  and  in  order  to 
stem  the  tide  of  opposition,  temples  and 
monasteries  were  built,  a  priesthood  was 
established  in  imitation  of  the  Buddhists, 
and  all  kinds  of  ceremonies  and  observances 
were  taken  from  Buddhism,  until,  at  the 
present  day,  only  those  who  know  can  tell 
one  from  the  other. 

Although  alchemy,  which  was  introduced 
from  Greece,  via  Bactria,  in  the  second  cen- 
tury B.C.,  has  long  ceased  to  interest  the 
Chinese  public,  who  have  found  out  that 
gold  is  more  easily  made  from  the  sweat  of 
the  brow  than  from  copper  or  lead;  and  al- 
though only  a  few  silly  people  now  believe 
that  any  mixture  of  drugs  will  produce  an 
elixir  of  life,  able  to  confer  immortality  upon 
those  who  drink  it;  nevertheless,  Taoism 
still  professes  to  teach  the  art  of  extending 
life,  if  not  indefinitely,  at  any  rate  to  a  con- 
siderable length.  This  art  would  probably 
go  some  way  towards  extending  life  under 


\ 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     63 

any  circumstances,  for  it  consists  chiefly  in 
deep  and  regular  breathing,  preferably  of 
morning  air,  in  swallowing  the  saliva  three 
times  in  every  two  hours,  in  adopting  cer- 
tain positions  for  the  body  and  limbs,  which 
are  also  strengthened  by  gymnastic  exer- 
cises, and  finally,  as  borrowed  from  the 
Buddhists,  in  remaining  motionless  for  some 
hours  a  day,  the  eyes  shut,  and  the  mind  ab- 
stracted as  much  as  possible  from  all  sur- 
rounding influences.  The  upshot  of  these 
and  other  practices  is  the  development  of 
"the  pure  man,"  on  which  Chuang  Tzti 
(Chwongdza),  sl  Taoist  philosopher  of  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries  B.C.,  to  be  men- 
tioned again,  writes  as  follows:  "But  what 
is  a  pure  man?  The  pure  men  of  old  acted 
without  calculation,  not  seeking  to  secure 
results.  They  laid  no  plans.  Therefore,  fail- 
ing, they  had  no  cause  for  regret;  succeed- 
ing, no  cause  for  congratulation.  And  thus 
they  could  scale  heights  without  fear;  enter 
water  without  becoming  wet,  and  fire  with- 
out feeling  hot.  The  pure  men  of  old  slept 
without  dreams,  and  waked  without  anxiety. 
They  ate  without  discrimination,  breathing 
deep  breaths.  For  pure  men  draw  breath 
from  their  heels;  the  vulgar  only  from  their 
throats." 


64      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Coupled  with  what  may  be  called  intel- 
lectual Taoism,  as  opposed  to  the  grosser 
form  under  which  this  faith  appeals  to  the 
people  at  large,  is  a  curious  theory  that 
hirnian  life  reaches  the  earth  from  some  ex- 
traordinarily dazzling  centre  away  in  the 
depths  of  space,  **  beyond  the  range  of  con- 
ceptions." This  centre  appears  to  be  the 
home  of  eternal  principles,  the  abode  of  a 
First  Cause,  where  perfectly  spotless  and 
pure  beings  *' drink  of  the  spiritual  and  feed 
on  force,"  and  where  likeness  exists  with- 
out form.  To  get  back  to  that  state  should 
be  the  object  of  all  men,  and  this  is  only  to 
be  attained  by  a  process  of  mental  and 
physical  purification  prolonged  through  all 
conditions  of  existence.  Then,  when  body 
and  soul  are  fitted  for  the  change,  there 
comes  what  ordinary  mortals  call  death; 
and  the  pure  being  closes  his  eyes,  to  awake 
forthwith  in  his  original  glory  from  the  sleep 
which  mortals  call  life. 

For  many  centuries  Buddhism  and  Taoism 
were  in  bitter  antagonism.  Sometimes  the 
court  was  Buddhist,  sometimes  Taoist;  first 
one  faith  was  suppressed  altogether,  then  the 
other;  in  a.d.  574  both  were  abolished  in 
deference  to  Confucianism,  which,  however, 
no  emperor  has  ever  dared  to  interfere  with 


\ 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION      65 

seriously.  At  present,  all  the  "three  reli- 
gions" flourish  happily  side  by  side. 

The  Chinese  believe  firmly  in  the  existence 
of  spirits,  which  they  classify  simply  as 
good  and  evil.  They  do  not  trouble  their 
heads  much  about  the  former,  but  they  are 
terribly  afraid  of  the  latter.  Hideous  devils 
infest  dark  corners,  and  lie  in  wait  to  injure 
unfortunate  passers-by,  often  for  no  cause 
whatever.  The  spirits  of  persons  who  have 
been  wronged  are  especially  dreaded  by 
those  who  have  done  the  wrong.  A  man 
who  has  been  defrauded  of  money  will  com- 
mit suicide,  usually  by  poison,  at  the  door 
of  the  wrongdoer,  who  will  thereby  first  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  authorities,  and  if  he 
escapes  in  that  quarter,  will  still  have  to 
count  with  the  injured  ghost  of  his  victim. 
A  daughter-in-law  will  drown  or  hang  her- 
self to  get  free  from,  and  also  to  avenge,  the 
tyranny  or  cruelty  of  her  husband's  mother. 
These  acts  lead  at  once  to  family  feuds, 
which  sometimes  end  in  bloodshed;  more 
often  in  money  compensation;  and  the 
known  risk  of  such  contingencies  operates 
as  a  wholesome  check  upon  aggressive  treat- 
ment of  the  weak  by  the  strong. 

Divination  and  fortune-telling  have  always 
played  a  conspicuous  part  in  ordinary  Chinese 


66      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

life.  Wise  men,  of  the  magician  type,  sit  at 
stalls  in  street  and  market-place,  ready  for  a 
small  fee  to  advise  those  who  consult  them 
on  any  enterprise  to  be  undertaken,  even  of 
the  most  trivial  kind.  The  omens  can  be 
taken  in  various  ways,  as  by  calculation 
based  upon  books,  of  which  there  is  quite  a 
literature,  or  by  drawing  lots  inscribed  with 
mystic  signs,  to  be  interpreted  by  the  fortune- 
teller. Even  at  Buddhist  temples  may  be 
found  two  kidney-shaped  pieces  of  wood,  flat 
on  one  side  and  round  on  the  other,  which 
are  thrown  into  the  air  before  an  altar,  the 
results — two  flats,  two  rounds,  or  one  of 
each — being  interpreted  as  unfavourable, 
medium,  and  very  favourable,  respectively. 

Of  all  Chinese  superstitions,  the  one  that 
has  been  most  persistent,  and  has  exerted 
the  greatest  influence  upon  national  life,  is 
the  famous  Wind-and- Water  system  {jeng 
shui)  of  geomancy.  According  to  the  prin- 
ciples which  govern  this  system,  and  of  which 
quite  a  special  literature  exists,  the  good  or 
evil  fortunes  of  individuals  and  the  com- 
munities are  determined  by  the  various 
physical  aspects  and  conditions  which  sur- 
round their  everyday  life.  The  shapes  of 
hills,  the  presence  or  absence  of  water,  the 
position  of   trees,   the  height  of  buildings. 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     67 

and  so  forth,  are  all  matters  of  deep  con- 
sideration to  the  professors  of  the  geomantie 
art,  who  thrive  on  the  ignorance  of  super- 
stitious clients.  They  are  called  in  to  select 
propitious  sites  for  houses  and  graves;  and 
it  often  happens  that  if  the  fortunes  of  a 
family  are  failing,  a  geomancer  will  be  in- 
vited to  modify  in  some  way  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  ancestral  graveyard.  Houses  in 
a  Chinese  street  are  never  built  up  so  as  to 
form  a  line  of  uniform  height;  every  now 
and  again  one  house  must  be  a  little  higher 
or  a  little  lower  than  its  neighbour,  or  calam- 
ity will  certainly  ensue.  It  is  impossible  to 
walk  straight  into  an  ordinary  middle-class 
dwelling-house.  Just  inside  the  front  door 
there  will  be  a  fixed  screen,  which  forces  the 
visitor  to  turn  to  the  right  or  to  the  left;  the 
avowed  object  being  to  exclude  evil  spirits, 
which  can  only  move  in  straight  lines. 

Mention  of  the  ancestral  graveyard  brings 
to  mind  the  universal  worship  of  ancestors, 
which  has  been  from  time  immemorial  such 
a  marked  feature  of  Chinese  religious  life. 
At  death,  the  spirit  of  a  man  or  woman  is 
believed  to  remain  watching  over  the  mate- 
rial interests  of  the  family  to  which  the  de- 
ceased had  belonged.  Offerings  of  various 
kinds,  including  meat  and  drink,  are  from 


68      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

time  to  time  made  to  such  a  spirit,  supposed 
to  be  particularly  resident  in  an  ancestral 
tablet  which  is  preserved  in  the  ancestral 
hall — or  cupboard,  as  the  case  may  be. 
These  oflferings  are  made  for  the  special  pur- 
pose of  conciliating  the  spirit,  and  of  obtain- 
ing in  return  a  liberal  share  of  the  blessings 
and  good  things  of  this  life.  This  is  the 
essential  feature  of  the  rite,  and  this  it  is 
which  makes  the  rite  an  act  of  worship  pure 
and  simple;  so  that  only  superficial  observers 
could  make  the  mistake  of  classifying  ances- 
tral worship,  as  practised  in  China,  with 
such  acts  as  laying  wreaths  upon  the  tombs 
of  deceased  friends  and  relatives. 

With  reference  to  the  spirit  or  soul,  the 
Chinese  have  held  for  centuries  past  that 
the  soul  of  every  man  is  twofold;  in  a  popular 
acceptation  it  is  sometimes  regarded  as  three- 
fold. One  portion  is  that  which  expresses 
the  visible  personality,  and  is  permanently 
attached  to  the  body;  the  other  has  the 
power  of  leaving  the  body,  carrying  with  it 
an  appearance  of  physical  form,  which  ac- 
counts for  a  person  being  seen  in  two  differ- 
ent places  at  once.  Cases  of  catalepsy  or 
trance  are  explained  by  the  Chinese  as  the 
absence  from  the  body  of  this  portion  of  the 
soul,  which  is  also  believed  to  be  expelled 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     69 

from  the  body  by  any  violent  shock  or 
fright.  There  is  a  story  of  a  man  who  was 
so  terrified  at  the  prospect  of  immediate  ex- 
ecution that  his  separable  soul  left  his  body, 
and  he  found  himself  sitting  on  the  eaves  of 
a  house,  from  which  point  he  could  see  a 
man  bound,  and  waiting  for  the  executioner's 
sword.  Just  then,  a  reprieve  arrived,  and  in 
a  moment  he  was  back  again  in  his  body. 
Mr.  Edmund  Gosse,  who  can  hardly  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  Chinese  view,  told 
a  similar  story  in  his  Father  and  Son:  "Dur- 
ing morning  and  evening  prayers,  which 
were  extremely  lengthy  and  fatiguing,  I 
fancied  that  one  of  my  two  selves  could 
flit  up,  and  sit  clinging  to  the  cornice,  and 
look  down  on  my  other  self  and  the  rest  of 
us." 

In  some  parts  of  China,  planchette  is  fre- 
quently resorted  to  as  a  means  of  reading 
the  future,  and  adapting  one's  actions  ac- 
cordingly. It  is  a  purely  professional  per- 
formance, being  carried  through  publicly 
before  some  altar  in  a  temple,  and  payment 
made  for  the  response.  The  question  is 
written  down  on  a  piece  of  paper,  which  is 
burnt  at  the  altar  apparently  before  any 
one  could  gather  knowledge  of  its  contents; 
and  the  answer  from  the  god  is  forthwith 


70      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

traced  on  a  tray  of  sand,  word  by  word, 
each  word  being  obliterated  to  make  room 
for  the  next,  by  two  men,  supposed  to  be 
ignorant  of  the  question,  who  hold  the  ends 
of  a  V-shaped  instrument  from  the  point  of 
which  a  little  wooden  pencil  projects  at  right 
angles. 

Another  method  of  extracting  information 
from  the  spirits  of  the  unseen  world  is  noth- 
ing more  nor  less  than  hypnotism,  which 
has  long  been  known  to  the  Chinese,  and  is 
mentioned  in  literature  so  far  back  as  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  With 
all  the  paraphernalia  of  altar,  candles,  in- 
cense, etc.,  a  medium  is  thrown  into  a  hyp- 
notic condition,  during  which  his  body  is 
supposed  to  be  possessed  by  a  spirit,  and 
every  word  he  may  utter  to  be  divinely  in- 
spired. An  amusing  instance  is  recorded  of 
a  medium  who,  while  under  hypnotic  in- 
fluence, not  only  blurted  out  the  pecuniary 
defalcations  of  certain  men  who  had  been 
collecting  in  aid  of  temple  restoration,  but 
went  so  far  as  to  admit  that  he  had  had  some 
of  the  money  himself. 

This  same  influence  is  also  used  in  cases  of 
serious  illness,  but  always  secretly,  for  such 
practices,  as  well  as  dark  seances  for  communi- 
cating with  spirits,  are  strictly  forbidden  by 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     71 

the  Chinese  authorities,  who  regard  the 
employment  of  occult  means  as  more  likely 
to  be  subversive  of  morality  than  to  do  any 
good  whatever  to  a  sick  person,  or  to  any  one 
else.  All  secret  societies  of  any  sort  or  kind 
are  equally  under  the  ban  of  the  law,  the 
assumption — a  very  justifiable  one — being 
that  the  aim  of  these  societies  is  to  upset  the 
existing  order  of  political  and  social  life.  The 
Heaven-and-Earth  Society  is  among  the  most 
famous,  and  the  most  dreaded,  partly  perhaps 
because  it  has  never  been  entirely  suppressed. 
The  lodges  of  this  fraternity,  the  oath  of 
fidelity,  and  the  ceremonial  of  admission, 
remind  one  forcibly  of  Masonry  in  the  West; 
but  the  points  of  contact  are  merely  coinci- 
dences, and  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any 
real  connexion. 

Among  the  most  curious  of  all  these  institu- 
tions is  the  Golden  Orchid  Society,  the  girl- 
members  of  which  swear  never  to  marry,  and 
not  only  threaten,  but  positively  commit 
suicide  upon  any  attempt  at  coercion.  At 
one  time  this  society  became  such  a  serious 
menace  that  the  authorities  were  compelled 
to  adopt  severe  measures  of  repression. 

Another  old-established  society  is  that  of 
the  Vegetarians,  who  eat  no  meat  and  neither 
smoke    nor    drink.     From    their    seemingly 


72       THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

harmless  ranks  it  is  said  that  the  Boxers  of 
1900  were  largely  recruited. 

For  nearly  twenty-five  centuries  the  Chi- 
nese have  looked  to  Confucius  for  their 
morals.  Various  religions  have  appealed  to 
the  spiritual  side  of  the  Chinese  mind,  and 
Buddhism  has  obtained  an  ascendancy  which 
will  not  be  easily  displaced;  but  through  all 
this  long  lapse  of  time  the  morality  of  China 
has  been  under  the  guidance  of  their  great 
teacher,  Confucius  (551-479  B.C.),  affection- 
ately known  to  them  as  the  "uncrowned 
king,"  and  recently  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  god. 

His  doctrines,  in  the  form  sometimes  of 
maxims,  sometimes  of  answers  to  eager 
inquirers,  were  brought  together  after  his 
death — we  do  not  know  exactly  how  soon — 
and  have  influenced  first  and  last  an  enormous 
proportion  of  the  human  race.  Confucius 
taught  man's  duty  to  his  neighbour;  he 
taught  virtue  for  virtue's  sake,  and  not  for  the 
hope  of  reward  or  fear  of  punishment;  he 
taught  loyalty  to  the  sovereign  as  the  foun- 
dation stone  of  national  prosperity,  and  filial 
piety  as  the  basis  of  all  happiness  in  the  life 
of  the  people.  As  a  simple  human  moralist 
he  saw  clearly  the  limitations  of  humanity, 
and  refused  to  teach  his  disciples  to  return 
good  for  evil,  as  suggested  by  the  Old  Phi- 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     73 

losopher,  declaring  without  hesitation  that 
evil  should  be  met  by  justice.  The  first 
systematic  writer  of  Chinese  history,  who 
died  about  80  B.C.,  expressed  himself  on  the 
position  and  influence  of  Confucius  in  terms 
which  have  been  accepted  as  accurate  for 
twenty  centuries  past:  "Countless  are  the 
princes  and  prophets  that  the  world  has  seen 
in  its  time — glorious  in  life,  forgotten  in 
death.  But  Confucius,  though  only  a  humble 
member  of  the  cotton-clothed  masses,  re- 
mains with  us  after  numerous  generations. 
He  is  the  model  for  such  as  would  be  wise. 
By  all,  from  the  Son  of  Heaven  down  to  the 
meanest  student,  the  supremacy  of  his  prin- 
ciples is  freely  and  fully  admitted.  He  may 
indeed  be  pronounced  the  divinest  of  men." 

The  Son  of  Heaven  is  of  course  the  Em- 
peror, who  is  supposed  to  be  God's  chosen 
representative  on  earth,  and  responsible  for 
the  right  conduct  and  well-being  of  all  com- 
mitted to  his  care.  Once  every  year  he  pro- 
ceeds in  state  to  the  Temple  of  Heaven  at 
Peking;  and  after  the  due  performance  of 
sacrificial  worship  he  enters  alone  the  central 
raised  building  with  circular  blue-tiled  roof, 
and  there  places  himself  in  communication 
with  the  Supreme  Being,  submitting  for  ap- 
proval or  otherwise  his  stewardship  during 


74      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  preceding  twelve  months.  Chinese  rec- 
ords go  so  far  as  to  mention  letters  received 
from  God.  There  is  a  legend  of  the  sixth 
century  a.d.,  which  claims  that  God  revealed 
Himself  to  a  hermit  in  a  retired  valley,  and 
bestowed  on  him  a  tablet  of  jade  with  a  mys- 
terious inscription.  But  there  is  a  much 
more  circumstantial  account  of  a  written 
communication  which  in  a.d.  1008  descended 
from  heaven  upon  Mount  T'ai,  the  famous 
mountain  in  Shantung,  where  a  temple  has 
been  built  to  mark  the  very  spot.  The  em- 
peror and  his  courtiers  regarded  this  letter 
with  profound  reverence  and  awe,  which 
roused  the  ire  of  a  learned  statesman  of  the 
day.  The  latter  pointed  out  that  Confucius, 
when  asked  to  speak,  so  that  his  disciples 
might  have  something  to  record,  had  bluntly 
replied:  "Does  God  speak .^^  The  four  seasons 
pursue  their  courses  and  all  things  are 
produced;  but  does  God  say  anything.^" 
Therefore,  he  argued,  if  God  does  not  speak 
to  us,  still  less  will  He  write  a  letter. 

The  fact  that  the  receipt  of  such  a  letter  is 
mentioned  in  the  dynastic  history  of  the 
period  must  not  be  allowed  to  discredit  in  any 
way  the  general  truth  and  accuracy  of  Chinese 
annals,  which,  as  research  progresses,  are  daily 
found  to  be  far  more  trustworthy  than  was 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     75 

ever  expected  to  be  the  case.  We  ourselves 
do  not  wholly  reject  the  old  contemporary 
chronicles  of  Hoveden  and  Roger  of  Wend- 
over  because  they  mention  a  letter  from 
Christ  on  the  neglect  of  the  Sabbath. 

In  Chinese  life,  social  and  political  alike,  ^ 
filial  piety  may  be  regarded  as  the  keystone 
of  the  arch.  Take  that  away,  and  the  super- 
structure of  centuries  crumbles  to  the  ground. 
When  Confucius  was  asked  by  one  of  his 
disciples  to  explain  what  constituted  filial 
piety,  he  replied  that  it  was  a  diflficult  obliga- 
tion to  define;  while  to  another  disciple  he 
was  able  to  say  without  hesitation  that  the 
mere  support  of  parents  would  be  insufficient, 
inasmuch  as  food  is  what  is  supplied  even  to 
horses  and  dogs.  According  to  the  story- 
books for  children,  the  obligation  has  been 
interpreted  by  the  people  at  large  in  many 
various  ways.  The  twenty-four  standard 
examples  of  filial  children  include  a  son  who 
allowed  mosquitoes  to  feed  upon  him,  and 
did  not  drive  them  away  lest  they  should  go 
and  annoy  his  parents;  another  son  who  wept 
so  passionately  because  he  could  procure  no 
bamboo  shoots  for  his  mother  that  the  gods 
were  touched,  and  up  out  of  the  ground  came 
some  shoots  which  he  gathered  and  carried 
home;  another  who  when  carrying  buckets  of 


76      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

water  would  slip  and  fall  on  purpose,  in  order 
to  make  his  parents  laugh;  and  so  on.  No 
wonder  that  Confucius  found  filial  piety  be- 
yond his  powers  of  definition. 

Now  for  a  genuine  example.  There  is  a 
very  wonderful  novel  in  which  a  very  affect- 
ing love-story  is  worked  out  to  a  terribly 
tragic  conclusion.  The  heroine,  a  beautiful 
and  fascinating  girl,  finally  dies  of  consump- 
tion, and  the  hero,  a  wayward  but  none  the 
less  fascinating  youth,  enters  the  Buddhist 
priesthood.  A  lady,  the  mother  of  a  clever 
young  official,  was  so  distressed  by  the 
pathos  of  the  tale  that  she  became  quite  ill, 
and  doctors  prescribed  medicines  in  vain.  At 
length,  when  things  were  becoming  serious, 
the  son  set  to  work  and  composed  a  sequel  to 
this  novel,  in  which  he  resuscitated  the 
heroine  and  made  the  lovers  happy  by  mar- 
riage; and  in  a  short  time  he  had  the  intense 
satisfaction  of  seeing  his  mother  restored  to 
health. 

Other  forms  of  filial  piety,  which  bear  no 
relation  whatever  to  the  fanciful  fables  given 
above,  are  commonly  practised  by  all  classes. 
In  consequence  of  the  serious  or  prolonged 
illness  of  parents,  it  is  very  usual  for  sons 
and  daughters  to  repair  to  the  municipal 
temple  and  pray  that  a  certain  number  of 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     77 

years  may  be  cut  off  their  own  span  of  life 
and  added  to  that  of  the  sick  parents  in 
question. 

Let  us  now  pause  to  take  stock  of  some  of 
the  results  which  have  accrued  from  the 
operation  and  influence  of  Confucianism  dur- 
ing such  a  long  period,  and  over  such  swarm- 
ing myriads  of  the  human  race.  It  is  a 
commonplace  in  the  present  day  to  assert  that 
the  Chinese  are  hardworking,  thrifty,  and 
sober — the  last-mentioned,  by  the  way,  in  a 
land  where  drunkenness  is  not  regarded  as  a 
crime.  Shallow  observers  of  the  globe-trotter 
type,  who  have  had  their  pockets  picked  by 
professional  thieves  in  Hong-Kong,  and  even 
resident  observers  who  have  not  much  culti- 
vated their  powers  of  observation  and  com- 
parison, will  assert  that  honesty  is  a  virtue 
denied  to  the  Chinese;  but  those  who  have 
lived  long  in  China  and  have  more  seriously 
devoted  themselves  to  discover  the  truth, 
may  one  and  all  be  said  to  be  arrayed  upon 
the  other  side.  The  amount  of  solid  honesty 
to  be  met  with  in  every  class,  except  the  pro- 
fessionally criminal  class,  is  simply  aston- 
ishing. That  the  word  of  the  Chinese  mer- 
chant is  as  good  as  his  bond  has  long  since 
become  a  household  word,  and  so  it  is  in 
other   walks   of   life.     With   servants   from 


78      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

respectable  families,  the  householder  need 
have  no  fear  for  his  goods.  "Be  loyal,"  says 
the  native  maxim,  "to  the  master  whose  rice 
you  eat;"  and  this  maxim  is  usually  fulfilled 
to  the  letter.  Hence,  it  is  that  many  foreign- 
ers who  have  been  successful  in  their  business 
careers,  take  care  to  see,  on  their  final  de- 
parture from  the  East,  that  the  old  and 
faithful  servant,  often  of  twenty  to  thirty 
years'  standing,  shall  have  some  provision 
for  himself  and  his  family.  In  large  estab- 
lishments, especially  banks,  in  which  great 
interests  are  at  stake,  it  is  customary  for 
the  Chinese  staff  to  be  guaranteed  by  some 
wealthy  man  (or  firm),  who  deposits  securities 
for  a  considerable  amount,  thus  placing  the 
employer  in  a  very  favourable  position.  The 
properly  chosen  Chinese  servant  who  enters 
the  household  of  a  foreigner,  is  a  being  to 
whom,  as  suggested  above,  his  master  often 
becomes  deeply  attached,  and  whom  he  parts 
with,  often  after  many  years  of  service,  to  his 
everlasting  regret.  Such  a  servant  has  many 
virtues.  He  is  noiseless  over  his  work,  which 
he  performs  eflSciently.  He  can  stay  up  late, 
and  yet  rise  early.  He  lives  on  the  estabHsh- 
ment,  but  in  an  out-building.  He  provides 
his  own  food.  He  rarely  wants  to  absent 
himself,  and  even  then  will  always  provide 


RELIGION  AND  SUPERSTITION     79 

a  reliable  locum  tenens.  He  studies  his  mas- 
ter's ways,  and  learns  to  anticipate  his  slight- 
est wishes.  In  return  for  these  and  other 
services  he  expects  to  get  his  wages  punctually 
paid,  and  to  be  allowed  to  charge,  without  any 
notice  being  taken  of  the  same,  a  commission 
on  all  purchases.  This  is  the  Chinese  system, 
and  even  a  servant  absolutely  honest  in  any 
other  way  cannot  emancipate  himself  from 
its  grip.  But  if  treated  fairly,  he  will  not 
abuse  his  chance.  One  curious  feature  of  the 
system  is  that  if  one  master  is  in  a  relatively 
higher  position  than  another,  the  former  will 
be  charged  by  his  servants  slightly  more  than 
the  latter  by  his  servants  for  precisely  the 
same  article.  Many  attempts  have  been 
made  by  foreigners  to  break  through  this 
"old  custom,"  especially  by  offering  higher 
wages;  but  signal  failure  has  always  been  the 
result,  and  those  masters  have  invariably  suc- 
ceeded best  who  have  fallen  in  with  the 
existing  institution,  and  have  tried  to  make 
the  best  of  it. 

There  is  one  more,  and  in  many  ways  the 
most  important,  side  of  a  Chinese  servant's 
character.  He  will  recognize  frankly,  and 
without  a  pang,  the  superior  position  and  the 
rights  of  his  master;  but  at  the  same  time,  if 
worth  keeping,  he  will  exact  from  his  master 


80      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  proper  respect  due  from  man  to  man.  It 
is  wholly  beside  the  mark  to  say  that  he  will 
not  put  up  for  a  moment  with  the  cuflfs  and 
kicks  so  freely  administered  to  his  Indian 
colleague.  A  respectable  Chinese  servant  will 
often  refuse  to  remain  with  a  master  who  uses 
abusive  or  violent  language,  or  shows  signs  of 
uncontrollable  temper.  A  lucrative  place  is 
as  nothing  compared  with  the  "loss  of  face" 
which  he  would  suffer  in  the  eyes  of  his 
friends;  in  other  words,  with  his  loss  of 
dignity  as  a  man.  If  a  servant  will  put  up 
with  a  blow,  the  best  course  is  to  dismiss  him 
at  once,  as  worthless  and  unreliable,  if  not 
actually  dangerous.  Confucius  said:  "If  you 
mistrust  a  man,  do  not  employ  him;  if  you 
employ  a  man,  do  not  mistrust  him;"  and 
this  will  still  be  found  to  be  an  excellent  work- 
ing rule  in  dealings  with  Chinese  servants. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A.D.  220-1200 

The  long-lived  and  glorious  House  of  Han 
was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  usual  causes. 
There  were  palace  intrigues  and  a  temporary 
usurpation  of  the  throne,  eunuchs  of  course 
being  in  the  thick  of  the  mischief;  added  to 
which  a  very  serious  rebellion  broke  out, 
almost  as  a  natural  consequence.  First  and 
last  there  arose  three  aspirants  to  the  Im- 
perial yellow,  which  takes  the  place  of  purple 
in  ancient  Rome;  the  result  being  that,  after 
some  years  of  hard  fighting,  China  was  divided 
into  three  parts,  each  ruled  by  one  of  the 
three  rivals.  The  period  is  known  in  history 
as  that  of  the  Three  Kingdoms,  and  lasted 
from  A.D.  220  to  a.d.  265.  This  short  space 
of  time  was  filled,  especially  the  early  years, 
with  stirring  deeds  of  heroism  and  marvellous 
strategical  operations,  fortune  favouring  first 
one  of  the  three  commanders  and  then 
another.  The  whole  story  of  these  civil 
wars  is  most  graphically  told  in  a  famous 

81 


82      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

historical  romance  composed  about  a  thou- 
sand years  afterwards.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
Waverley  Novels,  a  considerable  amount  of 
fiction  has  been  interwoven  with  truth  to 
make  the  narrative  more  palatable  to  the 
general  reader;  but  its  basis  is  history,  and 
the  work  is  universally  regarded  among  the 
Chinese  themselves  as  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able productions  in  the  lighter  branches  of 
their  literature. 

The  three  to  four  centuries  which  follow 
on  the  above  period  were  a  time  of  political 
and  social  disorganization,  unfavourable,  ac- 
cording to  Chinese  writers,  to  the  develop- 
ment of  both  literature  and  art.  The  House 
of  Chin,  which  at  first  held  sway  over  a 
once  more  united  empire,  was  severely 
harassed  by  the  Tartars  on  the  north,  who 
were  in  turn  overwhelmed  by  the  House  of 
Toba.  The  latter  ruled  for  some  two  hun- 
dred years  over  northern  China,  while  the 
southern  portions  were  governed  by  several 
short-lived  native  dynasties.  A  few  points 
in  connexion  with  these  times  deserve  per- 
haps brief  mention. 

The  old  rule  of  twenty-seven  months  of 
mourning  for  parents  was  re-established, 
and  has  continued  in  force  down  to  the 
present  day.    The  Japanese  sent  occasional 


A.D.  220-1200  8S 

missions,  with  tribute;  and  the  Chinese, 
who  had  already  in  a.d.  240  dispatched  an 
envoy  to  Japan,  repeated  the  comphment  in 
608.  An  attempt  was  made  to  conquer 
Korea,  and  envoys  were  sent  to  countries 
as  far  off  as  Siam.  Buddhism,  which  had 
been  introduced  many  centuries  previously 
— no  one  can  exactly  say  when — ^began  to 
spread  far  and  wide,  and  appeared  to  be 
firmly  established.  In  a.d.  399  a  Buddhist 
priest,  named  Fa  Hsien,  started  from  cen- 
tral China  and  travelled  to  India  across  the 
great  desert  and  over  the  Hindu  Kush,  sub- 
sequently visiting  Patna,  Benares,  Buddha- 
Gaya,  and  other  well-known  spots,  which 
he  accurately  described  in  the  record  of  his 
journey  published  on  his  return  and  still  in 
existence.  His  object  was  to  obtain  copies 
of  the  sacred  books,  relics  and  images,  illus- 
trative of  the  faith;  and  these  he  safely  con- 
veyed to  China  by  sea  from  India,  via 
Ceylon  (where  he  spent  three  years),  and 
Sumatra,  arriving  after  an  absence  of  fifteen 
years. 

In  the  year  a.d.  618  the  House  of  T^ang 
entered  upon  its  glorious  course  of  three 
centuries  in  duration.  Under  a  strong  but 
dissolute  ruler  immediately  preceding,  China 
had  once  more  become  a  united  empire,  un- 


84      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

divided  against  itself;  and  although  wars 
and  rebellions  were  not  wanting  to  disturb 
the  even  tenor  of  its  way,  the  general  pic- 
ture presented  to  us  under  the  new  dynasty 
of  the  T'angs  rs  one  of  national  peace,  pros- 
perity, and  progress.  The  name  of  this 
House  has  endured,  like  that  of  Han,  to 
the  present  day  in  the  popular  language  of 
the  people;  for  just  as  the  northerners  still 
delight  to  style  themselves  "good  sons  of 
Han,"  so  are  the  southerners  still  proud  to 
speak  of  themselves  as  "men  of  T'ang/' 

One  of  the  chief  political  events  of  this 
period  was  the  usurpation  of  power  by  the 
Empress  Wu — at  first,  as  nominal  regent  on 
behalf  of  a  step-child,  the  son  and  heir  of 
her  late  husband  by  his  first  wife,  and  after- 
wards, when  she  had  set  aside  the  step- 
child, on  her  own  account.  There  had  been 
one  previous  instance  of  a  woman  wielding 
the  Imperial  sceptre,  namely,  the  Empress 
Lii  of  the  Han  dynasty,  to  whom  the  Chinese 
have  accorded  the  title  of  legitimate  ruler, 
which  has  not  been  allowed  to  the  Empress 
Wu.  The  latter,  however,  was  possessed  of 
much  actual  ability,  mixed  with  a  kind  of 
midsummer  madness;  and  so  long  as  her 
great  intellectual  faculties  remained  unim- 
paired, she  ruled,  like  her  successor  of  some 


A.D.  220-1200  85 

twelve  centuries  afterwards,  with  a  rod  of 
iron.  In  her  old  age  she  was  deposed  and 
dismissed  to  private  life,  the  rightful  heir 
being  replaced  upon  his  father's  throne. 

Among  the  more  extravagant  acts  of  her 
reign  are  some  which  are  still  familiar  to  the 
people  of  to-day.  Always,  even  while  her 
husband  was  alive,  she  was  present,  behind 
a  curtain,  at  councils  and  audiences;  after  his 
death  she  was  accustomed  to  take  her  place 
openly  among  the  ministers  of  state,  wear- 
ing a  false  beard.  In  694  she  gave  herself 
the  title  of  Divine  Empress,  and  in  696  she 
even  went  so  far  as  to  style  herself  God 
Almighty.  In  her  later  years  she  became 
hopelessly  arrogant  and  overbearing.  No 
one  was  allowed  to  say  that  the  Empress  was 
fair  as  a  lily  or  lovely  as  a  rose,  but  that  the 
lily  was  fair  or  the  rose  lovely  as  Her  Majesty. 
She  tried  to  spread  the  belief  that  she  was 
really  the  Supreme  Being  by  forcing  flowers 
artificially  and  then  in  the  presence  of  her 
courtiers  ordering  them  to  bloom.  On  one 
occasion  she  commanded  some  peonies  to 
bloom;  and  because  they  did  not  instantly 
obey,  she  caused  every  peony  in  the  capital 
to  be  pulled  up  and  burnt,  and  prohibited 
the  cultivation  of  peonies  ever  afterwards. 
She  further  decided  to  place  her  sex  once 


86      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

and  for  all  on  an  equality  with  man.  For 
that  purpose  women  were  admitted  to  the 
public  examinations,  oflScial  posts  being  con- 
ferred upon  those  who  were  successful;  and 
among  other  things  they  were  excused  from 
kneeling  while  giving  evidence  in  courts  of 
justice.  This  innovation,  however,  did  not 
fulfil  its  promise;  and  with  the  disappear- 
ance of  its  vigorous  foundress,  the  system 
also  disappeared.  It  was  not  actually  the 
first  time  in  Chinese  history  that  the  experi- 
ment had  been  tried.  An  emperor  of  the 
third  century  a.d.  had  already  opened  public 
life  to  women,  and  it  is  said  that  many  of 
them  rose  to  high  oflBice;  but  here  too  the 
system  was  of  short  duration,  and  the  old 
order  was  soon  restored. 

Another  striking  picture  of  the  T'ang 
dynasty  is  presented  by  the  career  of  an 
emperor  who  is  usually  spoken  of  as  Ming 
Huang,  and  who,  after  distinguishing  him- 
self at  several  critical  junctures,  mounted 
the  throne  in  712,  in  succession  to  his  father, 
who  had  abdicated  in  his  favour.  He  began 
with  economy,  closing  the  silk  factories  and 
forbidding  the  palace  ladies  to  wear  jewels 
or  embroideries,  considerable  quantities  of 
which  were  actually  burnt.  He  was  a  warm 
patron  of  literature,  and  schools  were  es- 


A.D.   220-1200  87 

tablished  in  every  village.  Fond  of  music, 
he  founded  a  college  for  training  youth  of 
both  sexes  in  this  art.  His  love  of  war  and 
his  growing  extravagance  led  to  increased 
taxation,  with  the  usual  consequences  in 
China — discontent  and  rebellion.  He  sur- 
rounded himself  by  a  brilliant  court,  wel- 
coming men  of  genius  in  literature  and  art; 
at  first  for  their  talents  alone,  but  finally 
for  their  readiness  to  participate  in  scenes  of 
revelry  and  dissipation  provided  for  the 
amusement  of  a  favourite  concubine,  the 
ever-famous  Yang  Kuei-fei  (pronounced 
Kway-fay).  Eunuchs  were  appointed  to 
official  posts,  and  the  grossest  forms  of 
religious  superstition  were  encouraged. 
Women  ceased  to  veil  themselves,  as  of  old. 
At  length,  in  755,  a  serious  rebellion  broke 
out,  and  a  year  later  the  emperor,  now  an 
old  man  of  seventy-one,  fled  before  the 
storm.  He  had  not  proceeded  far  before  his 
soldiery  revolted  and  demanded  vengeance 
upon  the  whole  family  of  the  favourite, 
several  unworthy  members  of  which  had 
been  raised  to  high  positions  and  loaded  with 
honours.  The  wretched  emperor  was  forced 
to  order  the  head  eunuch  to  strangle  his 
idolized  concubine,  while  the  rest  of  her 
family  perished  at  the  hands  of  the  troops. 


88      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

He  subsequently  abdicated  in  favour  of  his 
son,  and  spent  the  last  six  years  of  his  life 
in  seclusion. 

This  tragic  story  has  been  exquisitely  told 
in  verse  by  one  of  China's  foremost  poets, 
who  was  born  only  a  few  years  later.  He 
divides  his  poem  into  eight  parts,  dealing 
with  the  ennui  of  the  monarch  until  he  dis- 
covers beauty,  the  revelry  of  the  pair  together, 
followed  by  the  horrors  of  flighty  to  end  in 
the  misery  of  exile  without  her,  the  return 
when  the  emperor  passes  again  by  the  fatal 
spot,  home  where  everything  reminds  him  of 
her,  and  finally  spirit-land.  This  last  is  a 
figment  of  the  poet's  imagination.  He  pic- 
tures the  disconsolate  emperor  sending  a 
magician  to  discover  Yang  Kuei-fei's  where- 
abouts in  the  next  world,  and  to  bear  to  her 
a  message  of  uninterrupted  love.  The 
magician,  after  a  long  search,  finds  her  in 
one  of  the  Isles  of  the  Blest,  and  fulfils  his 
commission  accordingly. 

Her  features  are  fixed  and  calm,  though  myriad  tears  fall. 
Wetting  a  spray  of  pear-bloom,  as  it  were  with  the  raindrops 

of  spring. 
Subduing  her  emotions,  restraining  her  grief,  she  tenders  thanks 

to  His  Majesty, 
Saying  how  since  their  parting  she  had  missed  his  form  and 

voice; 
And  how,  although  their  love  on  earth  had  so  soon  come  to  an 

end. 


A.D.  220-1200  89 

The  days  and  months  among  the  Blest  were  still  of  long 

duration. 
And  now  she  turns  and  gazes  towards  the  abode  of  mortals. 
But  cannot  discern  the  Imperial  city,  lost  in  the  dust  and 

haze. 
Then  she  takes  out  the  old  keepsakes,  tokens  of  undying  love, 
A  gold  hairpin,  an  enamel  brooch,  and  bids  the  magician  carry 

these  back. 
One  half  of  the  hairpin  she  keeps,  and  one  half  of  the  enamel 

brooch. 
Breaking  with  her  hands  the  yellow  gold,  and  dividing  the 

enamel  in  two. 
"Tell  him,"  she  said,  "to  be  firm  of  heart,  as  this  gold  and 

enamel. 
And  then  in  heaven  or  on  earth  below  we  two  may  meet  once 

more." 

The  magnificent  House  of  T'ang  was  suc- 
ceeded by  five  insignificant  dynasties,  the 
duration  of  all  of  which  was  crowded  into 
about  half  a  century.  Then,  in  a.d.  960, 
began  the  rule  of  the  Sungs  (pronounced 
Soongs)y  to  last  for  three  hundred  years  and 
rival  in  national  peace  and  prosperity  any 
other  period  in  the  history  of  China.  The 
nation  had  already  in  a  great  measure 
settled  down  to  that  state  of  material  civil- 
ization and  mental  culture  in  which  it  has 
remained  to  the  present  time.  To  the  ap- 
pliances of  ordinary  Chinese  life  it  is  proba- 
ble that  but  few  additions  have  been  made 
since  a  very  early  date.  The  dress  of  the 
people  has  indeed  undergone  several  varia- 


90      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

tions,  but  the  ploughs  and  hoes,  the  water- 
wheels  and  well-sweeps,  the  tools  of  the 
artisans,  mud  huts,  carts,  junks,  chairs, 
tables,  chopsticks,  etc.,  which  we  still  see  in 
China,  are  probably  very  much  those  of 
two  thousand  years  ago.  Mencius,  of  the 
third  century  B.C.,  observed  that  written 
characters  had  the  same  form,  and  axle- 
trees  the  same  breadth,  all  over  the  empire; 
and  to  this  day  an  unaltering  uniformity  is 
one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  Chinese 
people  in  every  department  of  life. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  peaceful  aspira- 
tions of  the  House  of  Sung,  the  Kitan  Tartars 
were  for  ever  encroaching  upon  Chinese  ter- 
ritory, and  finally  overran  and  occupied  a 
large  part  of  northern  China^  with  their 
capital  where  Peking  now  stands.  This  re- 
sulted in  an  amicable  arrangement  to  divide 
the  empire,  the  Kitans  retaining  their  con- 
quests in  the  north,  from  which,  after  about 
two  hundred  years,  they  were  in  turn  ex- 
pelled by  the  Golden  Tartars,  who  had 
previously  been  subject  to  them. 

Many  volumes,  rather  than  pages,  would 
be  required  to  do  justice  to  the  statesmen, 
soldiers,  philosophers,  poets,  historians,  art 
critics,  and  other  famous  men  of  this  dy- 
nasty.   It  has  already  been  stated  that  the 


A.D.   220-1200  91 

interpretation  of  the  Confucian  Canon,  ac- 
cepted at  the  present  day,  dates  from  this 
period;  and  it  may  now  be  of  interest  to 
give  a  brief  account  of  another  remarkable 
movement  connected  with  the  dynasty, 
though  in  quite  a  different  Hne. 

Wang  An-shih  (as  shi  in  shirk),  popularly 
known  as  the  Reformer,  was  born  in  1021. 
In  his  youth  a  keen  student,  his  pen  seemed 
to  fly  over  the  paper.  He  rose  to  high  office; 
and  by  the  time  he  was  forty-eight  he  found 
himself  installed  as  confidential  adviser  to 
the  emperor.  He  then  entered  upon  a  series 
of  startling  political  reforms,  said  to  be 
based  upon  new  and  more  correct  inter- 
pretations of  portions  of  the  Confucian 
Canon,  which  still  remained,  so  far  as  ex- 
planation was  concerned,  just  as  it  had  been 
left  by  the  scholars  of  the  Han  dynasty. 
This  appeal  to  authority  was,  of  course,  a 
mere  blind,  cleverly  introduced  to  satisfy 
the  bulk  of  the  population,  who  are  always 
unwilling  to  move  in  any  direction  where  no 
precedent  is  forthcoming.  One  of  his  schemes, 
the  express  object  of  which  was  to  decrease 
taxation  and  at  the  same  time  to  increase 
the  revenue,  was  to  secure  a  sure  and  certain 
market  for  all  products,  as  follows.  From 
the  produce  of  a  given  district,  enough  was 


92      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

to  be  set  aside  (1)  for  the  payment  of  taxes, 
and  (£)  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  district; 
(3)  the  balance  was  then  to  be  taken  over  by 
the  state  at  a  low  rate,  and  held  for  a  rise 
or  forwarded  to  some  centre  where  there 
happened  to  be  a  demand.  There  would  be 
thus  a  certainty  of  market  for  the  farmer, 
and  an  equal  certainty  for  the  state  to  make 
profits  as  a  middleman.  Another  part  of 
this  scheme  consisted  in  obligatory  advances 
by  the  state  to  cultivators  of  land,  whether 
these  farmers  required  the  money  or  not, 
the  security  for  the  loans  being  in  each  case 
the  growing  crops. 

There  was  also  a  system  of  tithing  for 
military  purposes,  under  which  every  family 
having  more  than  two  males  was  bound  to 
supply  one  to  serve  as  a  soldier;  and  in  order 
to  keep  up  a  breed  of  cavalry  horses,  every 
family  was  compelled  to  take  charge  of  one, 
which  was  provided,  together  with  its  food, 
by  the  government.  There  was  a  system 
under  which  money  payments  were  substi- 
tuted for  the  old-fashioned  and  vexatious 
method  of  carrying  on  public  works  by 
drafts  of  forced  labourers;  and  again  another 
under  which  warehouses  for  bartering  and 
hypothecating  goods  were  established  all  over 
the  empire. 


A.D.  220-1200  93 

Of  all  his  innovations  the  most  interesting 
was  that  all  land  was  to  be  remeasured  and 
an  attempt  made  to  secure  a  more  equitable 
incidence  of  taxation.  The  plan  was  to 
divide  up  the  land  into  equal  squares,  and 
to  levy  taxes  in  proportion  to  the  fertility 
of  each.  This  scheme  proved  for  various 
reasons  to  be  unworkable;  and  the  bitter 
opposition  with  which,  like  all  his  other 
measures  of  reform,  it  was  received  by  his 
opponents,  did  not  conduce  to  success. 
Finally,  he  abolished  all  restrictions  upon 
the  export  of  copper,  the  result  being  that 
even  the  current  copper  "cash"  were  melted 
down  and  made  into  articles  for  sale  and 
exportation.  A  panic  ensued,  which  Wang 
met  by  the  simple  expedient  of  doubling 
the  value  of  each  cash.  He  attempted  to 
reform  the  examination  system,  requiring 
from  the  candidate  not  so  much  graces  of 
style  as  a  wide  acquaintance  with  practical 
subjects.  "Accordingly,"  says  one  Chinese 
author,  "even  the  pupils  at  the  village 
schools  threw  away  their  text-books  of 
rhetoric,  and  began  to  study  primers  of 
history,  geography,  and  political  economy" 
— a  striking  anticipation  of  the  movement  in 
vogue  to-day.  "I  have  myself  been,"  he 
tells  us,  "an  omnivorous  reader  of  books  of 


94      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

all  kinds,  even,  for  example,  of  ancient 
medical  and  botanical  works.  I  have,  more- 
over, dipped  into  treatises  on  agriculture 
and  on  needlework,  all  of  which  I  have  found 
very  profitable  in  aiding  me  to  seize  the 
great  scheme  of  the  Canon  itself."  But  hke 
many  other  great  men,  he  was  in  advance  of 
his  age.  He  fell  into  disfavour  at  court,  and 
was  dismissed  to  a  provincial  post;  and 
although  he  was  soon  recalled,  he  retired 
into  private  life,  shortly  afterwards  to  die, 
but  not  before  he  had  seen  the  whole  of  his 
policy  reversed. 

His  career  stands  out  in  marked  contrast 
with  that  of  the  great  statesman  and  philo- 
sopher, Chu  Hsi  (pronounced  Choo  Shee)^  who 
flourished  a.d.  1130-1200.  His  literary  out- 
put was  enormous  and  his  official  career 
successful;  but  his  chief  title  to  fame  rests 
upon  his  merits  as  a  commentator  on  the 
Confucian  Canon.  As  has  been  already 
stated,  he  introduced  interpretations  either 
wholly  or  partly  at  variance  with  those  which 
had  been  put  forth  by  the  scholars  of  the  Han 
dynasty  and  hitherto  received  as  infallible, 
thus  modifying  to  a  certain  extent  the  pre- 
vailing standard  of  political  and  social  moral- 
ity. His  guiding  principle  was  merely  one  of 
consistency.    He  refused  to  interpret  words 


A.D.   220-1200  95 

in  a  given  passage  in  one  sense,  and  the  same 
words  occurring  elsewhere  in  another  sense. 
The  effect  of  this  apparently  obvious  method 
was  magical;  and  from  that  date  the  teach- 
ings of  Confucius  have  been  universally  un- 
derstood in  the  way  in  which  Chu  Hsi  said 
they  ought  to  be  understood. 

To  his  influence  also  must  be  traced  the 
spirit  of  materialism  which  is  so  widely  spread 
among  educated  Chinese.  The  God  in  whom 
Confucius  believed,  but  whom,  as  will  be  seen 
later  on,  he  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have 
"taught,'^  was  a  passive  rather  than  an 
active  God,  and  may  be  compared  with  the 
God  of  the  Psalms.  He  was  a  personal  God, 
as  we  know  from  the  ancient  character  by 
which  He  was  designated  in  the  written 
language  of  early  ages,  that  character  being 
a  rude  picture  of  a  man.  This  view  was 
entirely  set  aside  by  Chu  Hsi,  who  declared 
in  the  plainest  terms  that  the  Chinese  word 
for  God  meant  nothing  more  than  "abstract 
right;"  in  other  words,  God  was  a  principle. 
It  is  impossible  to  admit  such  a  proposition, 
which  was  based  on  sentiment  and  not  on 
sound  reasoning.  Chu  Hsi  was  emphatically 
not  a  man  of  a  religious  temperament,  and 
belief  in  the  supernatural  was  distasteful  to 
him;  he  was  for  a  short  time  under  the  epell 


96      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

of  Buddhism,  but  threw  that  religion  over 
for  the  orthodoxy  of  Confucianism.  He  was, 
therefore,  anxious  to  exclude  the  supernatural 
altogether  from  the  revised  scheme  of  moral 
conduct  which  he  was  deducing  from  the 
Confucian  Canon,  and  his  interpretation  of 
the  word  "God"  has  been  blindly  accepted 
ever  since. 

When  Chu  Hsi  died,  his  coffin  is  said  to 
have  taken  up  a  position,  suspended  in  the 
air,  about  three  feet  from  the  ground.  Where- 
upon his  son-in-law,  falling  on  his  knees  be- 
side the  bier,  reminded  the  departed  spirit  of 
the  great  principles  of  which  he  had  been  such 
a  brilliant  exponent  in  life — and  the  coffin 
descended  gently  to  the  ground. 


CHAPTER  V 

WOMEN   AND   CHILDREN 

The  Chinese  are  very  fond  of  animals,  and 
especially  of  birds;  and  on  the  whole  they 
may  be  said  to  be  kind  to  their  animals, 
though  eases  of  ill-treatment  occur.  At  the 
same  time  it  must  be  carefully  remembered 
that  such  quantum  of  humanity  as  they  may 
exhibit  is  entirely  of  their  own  making;  there 
is  no  law  to  act  persuasively  on  brutal  na- 
tures, and  there  is  no  Society  for  the  Preven- 
tion of  Cruelty  to  Animals  to  see  that  any 
such  law  is  enforced.  A  very  large  number  of 
beautiful  birds,  mostly  songless,  are  found  in 
various  parts  of  China,  and  a  great  variety  of 
fishes  in  the  rivers  and  on  the  coast.  Wild 
animals  are  represented  by  the  tiger  (in  both 
north  and  south),  the  panther  and  the  bear, 
and  even  the  elephant  and  the  rhinoceros  may 
be  found  in  the  extreme  south-west.  The 
wolf  and  the  fox,  the  latter  dreaded  as  an 
uncanny  beast,  are  very  widely  distributed. 

\»7 


98      THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Still  less  would  there  be  any  ground  for 
establishing  a  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Children,  the  very  name  of  which 
would  make  an  ordinary,  unsophisticated 
Chinaman  stare.  Chinese  parents  are,  if 
anything,  over-indulgent  to  their  children. 
The  father  is,  indeed,  popularly  known  as  the 
"Severe  One,''  and  it  is  a  Confucian  tradition 
that  he  should  not  spare  the  rod  and  so  spoil 
the  child,  but  he  draws  the  line  at  a  poker; 
and  although  as  a  father  he  possesses  the 
power  of  life  and  death  over  his  offspring, 
such  punishments  as  are  inflicted  are  usually 
of  the  mildest  description.  The  mother,  the 
"Gentle  One,"  is,  speaking  broadly,  a  soft- 
hearted, sweet-natured  specimen  of  human- 
ity; one  of  those  women  to  whom  hundreds  of 
Europeans  owe  deep  debts  of  gratitude  for  the 
care  and  affection  lavished  upon  their  alien 
children.  In  the  absence  of  the  Severe  One, 
it  falls  to  her  to  chastise  when  necessary;  and 
we  even  read  of  a  son  who  wept,  not  because 
his  mother  hurt  him,  but  because,  owing  to 
her  advanced  age,  she  was  no  longer  able  to 
hit  him  hard  enough! 

Among  other  atrocious  libels  which  have 
fastened  upon  the  fair  fame  of  the  Chinese 
people,  first  and  foremost  stands  the  charge 
of  female  infanticide,  now  happily,  though 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  99 

still  slowly,  fading  from  the  calculations  of 
those  who  seek  the  truth.  Fifty  years  ago 
it  was  generally  believed  that  the  Chinese 
hated  their  female  children,  and  got  rid  of 
them  in  early  infancy  by  wholesale  murder. 
It  may  be  admitted  at  once  that  boys  are 
preferred  to  girls,  inasmuch  as  they  carry  on 
the  family  line,  and  see  that  the  worship  ol 
ancestors  is  regularly  performed  in  due  season. 
Also,  because  girls  require  dowries,  which 
they  take  away  with  them  for  the  benefit  ol 
other  families  than  their  own;  hence  the  say- 
ing, "There  is  no  thief  like  a  family  of  five 
daughters,"  and  the  term  " lose-money  goods,'* 
as  jestingly  applied  to  girls,  against  which 
may  be  set  another  term,  "a  thousand  ounce? 
of  gold,"  which  is  commonly  used  of  a  daugh- 
ter. Of  course  it  is  the  boy  who  is  specially 
wanted  in  a  family;  and  little  boys  are  often 
dressed  as  little  girls,  in  order  to  deceive 
the  angels  of  disease  and  death,  who,  it  is 
hoped,  may  thus  pass  them  over  as  of  less 
account. 

To  return  to  the  belief  formerly  held  that 
female  infanticide  was  rampant  all  over 
China.  The  next  step  was  for  the  honest 
observer  to  admit  that  it  was  not  known  in 
his  own  particular  district,  but  to  declare 
that    it    was    largely    practised    elsewhere. 


100    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

This  view,  however,  lost  its  vaUdity  when 
residents  "elsewhere"  had  to  allow  that  no 
traces  of  infanticide  could  be  found  in  their 
neighbourhood;  and  so  on.  Luckily,  still 
greater  comfort  is  to  be  found  in  the  follow- 
ing argument, — a  rare  example  of  proving 
a  negative — from  which  it  will  be  readily 
seen  that  female  infanticide  on  any  abnormal 
scale  is  quite  beyond  the  bounds  of  the 
possible.  Those  who  have  even  a  bowing 
acquaintance  with  Chinese  social  life  will 
grant  that  every  boy,  at  about  the  age  of 
eighteen,  is  provided  by  his  parents  with  a 
wife.  They  must  also  concede  the  notorious 
fact  that  many  well-to-do  Chinese  take  one 
or  more  concubines.  The  Emperor,  indeed, 
is  allowed  seventy;  but  this  number  exists 
only  on  paper  as  a  regulation  maximum. 
Now,  if  every  Chinaman  has  one  wife,  and 
many  have  two,  over  and  above  the  host  of 
girls  said  to  be  annually  sacrificed  as  worth- 
less babies,  it  must  follow  that  the  proportion 
of  girls  born  in  China  enormously  outnumbers 
the  proportion  of  boys,  whereas  in  the  rest  of 
the  world  boys  are  well  known  to  be  always 
in  the  majority.  After  this,  it  is  perhaps 
superfluous  to  state  that,  apart  from  the 
natural  love  of  the  parent,  a  girl  is  really, 
even  at  a  very  early  age,  a  marketable  com- 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  101 

modity.  Girls  are  sometimes  sold  into  other 
families  to  be  brought  up  as  wives  for  the 
sons;  more  often,  to  be  used  as  servants, 
under  what  is  of  course  a  form  of  slavery, 
qualified  by  the  important  condition,  which 
can  be  enforced  by  law,  that  when  of  a  mar- 
riageable age,  the  girl's  master  shall  find  her 
a  husband.  Illegitimate  children,  the  source 
of  so  much  baby-farming  and  infanticide 
elsewhere,  are  practically  unknown  in  China; 
and  the  same  may  be  said  of  divorce.  A 
woman  cannot  legally  divorce  her  husband. 
In  rare  cases  she  will  leave  him,  and  return 
to  her  family,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  can 
legally  insist  upon  her  return;  for  she  knows 
well  that  if  her  case  is  good,  the  husband  will 
not  dare  to  risk  the  scandal  of  an  exposure, 
not  to  mention  the  almost  certain  vengeance 
of  her  affronted  kinsmen.  It  is  also  the  fear 
of  such  vengeance  that  prevents  mothers-in- 
law  from  ill-treating  the  girls  who  pass  into 
their  new  homes  rather  as  servants  than 
daughters  to  the  husband's  mother.  Every 
woman,  as  indeed  every  man,  has  one  final 
appeal  by  which  to  punish  an  oppressor.  She 
may  commit  suicide,  there  being  no  canon, 
legal  or  moral,  against  self -slaughter;  and  in 
China,  where,  contrary  to  widespread  notions 
on  the  subject,  human  life  is  held  in  the  high- 


102    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

est  degree  sacred,  this  course  is  sure  to  entail 
trouble  and  expense,  and  possibly  severe 
punishment,  if  the  aggrieved  parties  are  not 
promptly  conciliated  by  a  heavy  money 
payment. 

A  man  may  divorce  his  wife  for  one  of  the 
seven  following  reasons: — Want  of  children, 
adultery,  neglect  of  his  parents,  nagging, 
thieving  {i.  e.  supplying  her  own  family  with 
his  goods,  popularly  known  as  "leakage"), 
jealous  temper  and  leprosy.  To  the  above, 
the  humanity  of  the  lawgiver  has  affixed  three 
qualifying  conditions.  He  may  not  put  her 
away  on  any  of  the  above  grounds  if  she  has 
duly  passed  through  the  period  of  mourning 
for  his  parents;  if  he  has  grown  rich  since 
their  marriage;  if  she  has  no  longer  any  home 
to  which  she  can  return. 

Altogether,  the  Chinese  woman  has  by  no 
means  such  a  bad  time  as  is  generally  sup- 
posed to  be  the  case.  Even  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  she  has  this  advantage  over  a  man,  that 
she  cannot  be  imprisoned  except  for  high 
treason  and  adultery,  and  is  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  exempt  from  the  punishment  of  the 
bamboo.  Included  in  this  exemption  are  the 
aged  and  the  young,  the  sick,  the  hungry 
and  naked,  and  those  who  have  already  suf- 
fered violence,  as  in  a  brawl.     Further,  in 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN         103 

a  well-known  handbook,  magistrates  are  ad- 
vised to  postpone,  in  certain  circumstances, 
the  infliction  of  corporal  punishment;  as  for 
instance,  when  either  the  prisoner  or  they 
themselves  may  be  under  the  influence  of 
excitement,  anger  or  drink. 

The  bamboo  is  the  only  instrument  with 
which  physical  punishment  may  legally  be 
inflicted;  and  its  infliction  on  a  prisoner  or 
recalcitrant  witness,  in  order  to  extort  evi- 
dence, constitutes  what  has  long  been  digni- 
fied as  "torture;"  but  even  that  is  now, 
under  a  changing  system,  about  to  disappear. 
This  must  not  be  taken  to  mean  that  torture, 
in  our  sense  of  the  term,  has  never  been  ap- 
plied in  China.  The  real  facts  of  the  case  are 
these.  Torture,  except  as  already  described, 
being  constitutionally  illegal,  no  magistrate 
would  venture  to  resort  to  it  if  there  were  any 
chance  of  his  successful  impeachment  before 
the  higher  authorities,  upon  which  he  would 
be  cashiered  and  his  official  career  brought 
abruptly  to  an  end.  Torture,  therefore, 
would  have  no  terrors  for  the  ordinary  citizen 
of  good  repute  and  with  a  backing  of  sub- 
stantial friends;  but  for  the  outcast,  the  rebel, 
the  highway  robber  (against  whom  every 
man's  hand  would  be),  the  disreputable  native 
of  a  distant  province,  and  also  for  the  outer 


104    THE  CIVILIZATION  OP  CHINA 

barbarian  {e.  g.  the  captives  at  the  Summer 
Palace  in  1860),  another  tale  must  be  told. 
No  consequences,  except  perhaps  promotion, 
would  follow  from  too  rigorous  treatment  in 
such  cases  as  these. 

Resort  to  the  bamboo  as  a  means  of  ex- 
torting the  confession  of  a  prisoner  is  regarded 
by  the  people  rather  as  the  magistrate's  con- 
fession of  his  own  incapacity.  The  education 
of  the  official,  too  easily  and  too  freely  turned 
into  ridicule,  gives  him  an  insight  into  human 
nature  which,  coupled  with  a  little  experience, 
renders  him  extremely  formidable  to  the  shifty 
criminal  or  the  crafty  litigant.  As  a  rule,  he 
finds  no  need  for  the  application  of  pain. 
There  is  a  quaint  story  illustrative  of  such 
judicial  methods  as  would  be  sure  to  meet 
with  full  approbation  in  China.  A  magis- 
trate, who  after  several  hearings  had  failed  to 
discover,  among  a  gang  accused  of  murder, 
what  was  essential  to  the  completion  of  the 
case,  namely,  the  actual  hand  which  struck 
the  fatal  blow,  notified  the  prisoners  that  he 
was  about  to  invoke  the  assistance  of  the 
spirits,  with  a  view  to  elicit  the  truth.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  caused  the  accused  men, 
dressed  in  the  black  clothes  of  criminals,  to  be 
led  into  a  large  barn,  and  arranged  around  it, 
face  to  the  wall.    Having  then  told  them  that 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  105 

an  accusing  angel  would  shortly  come  among 
them,  and  mark  the  back  of  the  guilty  man, 
he  went  outside  and  had  the  door  shut,  and 
the  place  darkened.  After  a  short  interval, 
when  the  door  was  thrown  open,  and  the  men 
were  summoned  to  come  forth,  it  was  seen 
directly  that  one  of  the  number  had  a  white 
mark  on  his  back.  This  man,  in  order  to 
make  all  secure,  had  turned  his  back  to  the 
wall,  not  knowing,  what  the  magistrate  well 
knew,  that  the  wall  had  been  newly  white- 
washed. 

As  to  the  punishment  of  crime  by  flogging, 
a  sentence  of  one  or  two  hundred — even  more 
— blows  would  seem  to  be  cruel  and  disgust- 
ing; happily,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
such  ferocious  sentences  are  executed  only  in 
such  cases  as  have  been  mentioned  above. 
An  acute  observer,  for  many  years  a  member 
of  the  municipal  police  force  in  Shanghai, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  floggings  were 
administered  to  Chinese  criminals,  stated 
plainly  in  a  public  report  that  the  bamboo 
is  not  necessarily  a  severe  ordeal,  and  that 
one  hundred  blows  are  at  times  inflicted  so 
lightly  as  to  leave  scarcely  a  mark  behind, 
though  the  recipient  howls  loudly  all  the  time. 
Those  criminals  who  have  money  can  always 
manage  to  square  the  gaoler;   and  the  gaoler 


106     THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

has  acquired  a  certain  knack  in  laying  on,  the 
upshot  being  great  cry  and  Httle  wool,  very 
satisfactory  to  the  culprit.  Even  were  we 
to  accept  the  cruellest  estimate  in  regard  to 
punishment  by  the  bamboo,  it  would  only  go 
to  show  that  humanitarian  feelings  in  China 
are  lagging  somewhat  behind  our  own.  In 
The  Times  of  March  1,  1811,  we  read  that, 
for  allowing  French  prisoners  to  escape  from 
Dartmoor,  three  men  of  the  Nottingham 
militia  were  sentenced  to  receive  900  lashes 
each,  and  that  one  of  them  actually  received 
450  lashes  in  the  presence  of  pickets  from 
every  regiment  in  the  garrison.  On  New 
Year's  Day,  1911,  a  eunuch  attempted  to 
assassinate  one  of  the  Imperial  Princes.  For 
this  he  was  sentenced  to  be  beaten  to  death, 
some  such  ferocious  punishment  being  neces- 
sary, in  Chinese  eyes,  to  vindicate  the  maj- 
esty of  the  law.  That  end  having  been  at- 
tained, the  sentence  was  commuted  to  eighty 
blows  with  the  bamboo  and  deportation  to 
northern  Manchuria. 

The  Chinese  woman  often,  in  mature  life, 
wields  enormous  influence  over  the  family, 
males  included,  and  is  a  kind  of  private 
Empress  Dowager.  A  man  knows,  says  the 
proverb,  but  a  woman  knows  better.  As  a 
widow  in  early  life,  her  lot  is  not  quite  so 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN         JOT 

pleasant.  It  is  not  thought  desirable  for 
widows  to  remarry;  but  if  she  remains  single, 
she  becomes  "a  rudderless  boat,"  around 
which  gathers  much  calumny.  Many  young 
women  brave  public  opinion,  and  enter  into 
second  nuptials.  If  they  are  bent  upon  re- 
marrying, runs  the  saying,  they  can  no  more 
be  prevented  than  the  sky  can  be  prevented 
from  raining. 

The  days  of  "golden  lilies,"  as  the  arti- 
ficially small  feet  of  Chinese  women  are 
called,  are  generally  believed  to  date  from 
the  tenth  century  a.d.,  though  some  writers 
have  endeavoured  to  place  the  custom  many 
centuries  earlier.  It  must  always  be  care- 
fully remembered  that  Manchu  women — the 
women  of  the  dynasty  which  has  ruled  since 
1644 — do  not  compress  their  feet.  Conse- 
quently, the  empresses  of  modern  times  have 
feet  of  the  natural  size;  neither  is  the  prac- 
tice in  force  among  the  Hakkas,  a  race  said  to 
have  migrated  from  the  north  of  China  to  the 
south  in  the  thirteenth  century;  nor  among 
the  hill  tribes;  nor  among  the  boating  popu- 
lation of  Canton  and  elsewhere.  Small  feet 
are  thus  in  no  way  associated  with  aristocracy 
or  gentleness  of  birth;  neither  is  there  any 
foundation  for  the  generally  received  opinion 
that  the  Chinese  lame  their  women  in  this 


108    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

way  to  keep  them  from  gadding  about. 
Small-footed  women  may  be  seen  carrying 
quite  heavy  burdens,  and  even  working  in 
the  fields;  not  to  mention  that  many  are 
employed  as  nurses  for  small  children.  An- 
other explanation  is  that  women  with  bound 
feet  bear  finer  children  and  stronger;  but  the 
real  reason  lies  in  another  direction,  quite 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  book.  The  question 
of  charm  may  be  taken  into  consideration, 
for  any  Chinaman  will  bear  witness  to  the 
seductive  effect  of  a  gaily-dressed  girl  picking 
her  way  on  tiny  feet  some  three  inches  in 
length,  her  swaying  movements  and  delight- 
ful appearance  of  instability  conveying  a 
general  sense  of  delicate  grace  quite  beyond 
expression  in  words. 

The  lady  of  the  tenth  century,  to  whom 
the  origin  of  small  feet  is  ascribed,  wished  to 
make  her  own  feet  like  two  new  moons;  but 
whether  she  actually  bound  them,  as  at  the 
present  day,  is  purely  a  matter  of  conjecture. 
The  modern  style  of  binding  inflicts  great 
pain  for  a  long  time  upon  the  little  girls  who 
have  to  endure  it.  They  become  very  shy 
on  the  subject,  and  will  on  no  account  show 
their  bare  feet,  though  Manchu  women  and 
others  with  full-sized  feet  frequently  walk 
about  unshod,  and  the  boat-girls  at  Canton 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  109 

and  elsewhere  never  seem  to  wear  shoes  or 
stockings  at  all. 

The  "pigtail,"  or  long  plait  of  hair  worn 
by  all  Chinamen,  for  the  abolition  of  which 
many  advanced  reformers  are  now  earnestly 
pleading,  is  an  institution  of  comparatively 
modern  date.  It  was  imposed  by  the  vic- 
torious Manchu-Tartars  when  they  finally 
established  their  dynasty  in  1644,  not  so  much 
as  a  badge  of  conquest,  still  less  of  servitude, 
but  as  a  means  of  obliterating,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  most  patent  distinction  between 
the  two  races,  and  of  unifying  the  appearance, 
if  not  the  aspirations,  of  the  subjects  of  the 
Son  of  Heaven.  This  obligation  was  for  some 
time  strenuously  resisted  by  the  natives  of 
Amoy,  Swatow,  and  elsewhere  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood. At  length,  when  compelled  to 
yield,  it  is  said  that  they  sullenly  wound  their 
queues  round  their  heads  and  covered  them 
with  turbans,  which  are  still  worn  by  natives 
of  those  parts. 

The  peculiar  custom  of  shaving  the  head  in 
front,  and  allowing  the  hair  to  grow  long 
behind,  is  said  to  have  been  adopted  by  the 
Manchus  out  of  affectionate  gratitude  to  the 
horse,  an  animal  which  has  played  an  all- 
important  part  in  the  history  and  achieve- 
ments  of   the  race.     This   view   is  greatly 


no    THE   CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

reinforced  by  the  cut  of  the  modern  official 
sleeves,  which  hang  down,  concealing  the 
hands,  and  are  shaped  exactly  like  a  pair  of 
horse's  hoofs. 

In  many  respects  the  Manchu  conquerors 
left  the  Chinese  to  follow  their  own  customs. 
No  attempt  was  made  to  coerce  Chinese 
women,  who  dress  their  hair  in  styles  totally 
different  from  that  of  the  Manchu  women; 
there  are,  too,  some  tolerated  differences 
between  the  dress  of  Manchu  and  Chinese 
men,  but  these  are  such  as  readily  escape 
notice.  Neither  was  any  attempt  made  in 
the  opening  years  of  the  conquest  to  interfere 
with  foot-binding  by  Chinese  women;  but  in 
1664  an  edict  was  issued  forbidding  the 
practice.  Readers  may  draw  their  own  con- 
clusions, when  it  is  added  that  four  years 
later  the  edict  was  withdrawn.  Hopes  are 
now  widely  and  earnestly  entertained  that 
with  the  dawn  of  the  new  era,  this  cruel 
custom  will  become  a  thing  of  the  past;  it  is, 
however,  to  be  feared  that  those  who  have 
been  urging  on  this  desirable  reform  may  be, 
like  all  reformers,  a  little  too  sanguine  of 
immediate  success,  and  that  a  comparatively 
long  period  will  have  to  go  by  before  the  last 
traces  of  foot-binding  disappear  altogether. 
Meanwhile,  it  seems  that  the  Government  has 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  111 

taken  the  important  step  of  refusing  admis- 
sion to  the  pubUc  schools  of  all  girls  whose 
feet  are  bound. 

The  disappearance  of  the  queue  is  another 
thing  altogether.  It  is  not  a  native  Chinese 
institution;  there  would  be  no  violation  of 
any  cherished  tradition  of  antiquity  if  it  were 
once  and  for  ever  discarded.  On  the  contrary, 
if  the  Chinese  do  not  intend  to  follow  the 
Japanese  and  take  to  foreign  clothes,  there 
might  be  a  return  to  the  old  style  of  doing  the 
hair.  The  former  dress  of  the  Japanese  was 
one  of  the  numerous  items  borrowed  by  them 
from  China;  it  was  indeed  the  national  dress 
of  the  Chinese  for  some  three  hundred  years, 
between  a.d.  600-900.  One  little  difficulty 
will  vanish  with  the  queue.  A  Chinese  coolie 
will  tie  his  tail  round  his  head  when  engaged 
on  work  in  which  he  requires  to  keep  it  out 
of  the  way,  and  the  habit  has  become  of  real 
importance  with  the  use  of  modern  machinery ; 
but  on  the  arrival  of  his  master,  he  should 
at  once  drop  it,  out  of  respect,  a  piece  of 
politeness  not  always  exhibited  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  foreign  employer.  The  agitation, 
now  in  progress,  for  the  final  abolition  of  the 
queue  may  be  due  to  one  or  all  of  the  follow- 
ing reasons.  Intelligent  Chinese  may  have 
come  to  realize  that  the  fashion  is  cumbrous 


112    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

and  out  of  date.  Sensitive  Chinese  may  fear 
that  it  makes  them  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of 
foreigners.  PoKtical  Chinese,  who  would 
gladly  see  the  re-establishment  of  a  native 
dynasty,  may  look  to  its  disappearance  as  the 
first  step  towards  throwing  off  the  Manchu 
yoke. 

On  the  whole,  the  ruling  Manchus  have 
shown  themselves  very  careful  not  to  wound 
the  susceptibilities  of  their  Chinese  subjects. 
Besides  allowing  the  women  to  retain  their 
own  costume,  and  the  dead,  men  and  women 
alike,  to  be  buried  in  the  costume  of  the 
previous  dynasty,  it  was  agreed  from  the  very 
first  that  no  Chinese  concubines  should  be 
taken  into  the  Palace.  This  last  condition 
appears  to  be  a  concession  pure  and  simple 
to  the  conquered;  there  is  little  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  the  wily  Manchus  were  only  too 
ready  to  exclude  a  very  dangerous  possibility 
of  political  intrigue. 


CHAPTER  VI 

LITERATURE   AND   EDUCATION 

The  Chinese  people  reverence  above  all 
things  hterature  and  learning;  they  hate 
war,  bearing  in  mind  the  saying  of  Meneius, 
"There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  righteous  war; 
we  can  only  assert  that  some  wars  are  better 
than  others;"  and  they  love  trade  and  the 
finesse  of  the  market-place.  China  can  boast 
many  great  soldiers,  in  modern  as  well  as  in 
ancient  days;  but  anything  like  a  proper 
appreciation  of  the  military  arm  is  of  quite 
recent  growth.  "Good  iron  is  not  used  for 
nails,  nor  good  men  for  soldiers,"  says  the 
proverb;  and  again,  "One  stroke  of  the 
civilian's  pen  reduces  the  military  official  to 
abject  submission."  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  admitted  that  "Civilians  give  the  empire 
peace,  and  soldiers  give  it  security." 

Chinese  parents  have  never,  until  recent 
days,  willingly  trained  their  sons  for  the 
army.  They  have  always  wished  their  boys 
to  follow  the  stereotyped  literary  curriculum, 

118 


114    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

and  then,  after  passing  successfully  through 
the  great  competitive  examinations,  to  rise  to 
high  civil  office  in  the  state.  A  good  deal  of 
ridicule  has  been  heaped  of  late  on  the  Chinese 
competitive  examination,  the  subjects  of 
which  were  drawn  exclusively  from  the  Con- 
fucian Canon,  and  included  a  knowledge  of 
ancient  history,  of  a  comprehensive  scheme 
of  morality,^  initiated  by  Confucius,  and 
further  elaborated  by  Mencius  (372-289  b.c.)> 
of  the  ballads  and  ceremonial  rites  of  three 
thousand  years  ago,  and  of  an  aptitude  for 
essay-writing  and  the  composition  of  verse. 
The  whole  curriculum  may  be  fitly  compared 
with  such  an  education  as  was  given  to  Wil- 
liam Pitt  and  others  among  our  own  great 
statesmen,  in  which  an  ability  to  read  the 
Greek  and  Roman  classics,  coupled  with  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  Peloponnesian 
War,  carried  the  student  about  as  far  as  it 
was  considered  necessary  for  him  to  go.  The 
Chinese  course,  too,  has  certainly  brought  to 
the  front  in  its  time  a  great  many  eminent 
men,  who  have  held  their  own  in  diplomacy, 
if  not  in  warfare,  with  the  subtlest  intellects 
of  the  West. 

Their  system  of  competitive  examinations 
has  indeed  served  the  Chinese  well.  It  is 
the  brightest  spot  in  the  whole  administra- 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   115 

tion,  being  absolutely  above  suspicion,  such 
as  attaches  to  other  departments  of  state. 
Attempts  have  been  made  from  time  to  time 
to  gain  admission  by  improper  means  to  the 
list  of  successful  candidates,  and  it  would  be 
absurd  to  say  that  not  one  has  ever  succeeded; 
the  risk,  however,  is  too  great,  for  the  pen- 
alty on  detection  may  be  death. 

The  ordeal  itself  is  exceedingly  severe,  as 
well  for  the  examiners  as  for  the  candidates. 
At  the  provincial  examinations,  held  once  in 
every  third  year,  an  Imperial  Commissioner, 
popularly  known  as  the  Grand  Examiner,  is 
sent  down  from  Peking.  On  arrival,  his  resi- 
dence is  formally  sealed  up,  and  extraordi- 
nary precautions  are  taken  to  prevent  friends 
of  intending  candidates  from  approaching 
him  in  any  way.  There  is  no  age  limit,  and 
men  of  quite  mature  years  are  to  be  found 
competing  against  youths  hardly  out  of  their 
teens;  indeed,  there  is  an  authenticated  case 
of  a  man  who  successfully  graduated  at  the 
age  of  seventy- two.  Many  compete  year 
after  year,  until  at  length  they  decide  to 
give  it  up  as  a  bad  job. 

At  an  early  hour  on  the  appointed  day  the 
candidates  begin  to  assemble,  and  by  and  by 
the  great  gates  of  the  examination  hall  are 
thrown   open,    and   heralds   shriek   out   the 


116    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

names  of  those  who  are  to  enter.  Each  one 
answers  in  turn  as  his  name  is  called,  and  re- 
ceives from  the  attendants  a  roll  of  paper 
marked  with  the  number  of  the  open  cell  he 
is  to  occupy  in  one  of  the  long  alleys  into 
which  the  examination  hall  is  divided.  Other 
writing  materials,  as  well  as  food,  he  carries 
with  him  in  a  basket,  which  is  always  care- 
fully searched  at  the  door,  and  in  which 
"sleeve"  editions  of  the  classics  have  some- 
times been  found.  When  all  have  taken  their 
seats,  the  Grand  Examiner  burns  incense,  and 
closes  the  entrance  gates,  through  which  no 
one  will  be  allowed  to  pass,  either  in  or  out, 
dead  or  alive,  until  the  end  of  the  third  day, 
when  the  first  of  the  three  sessions  is  at  an  end, 
and  the  candidates  are  released  for  the  night. 
In  case  of  death,  not  unusual  where  ten  or 
twelve  thousand  persons  are  cooped  up  day 
and  night  in  a  confined  space,  the  corpse  is 
hoisted  over  the  wall;  and  this  would  be  done 
even  if  it  were  that  of  the  Grand  Examiner 
himself,  whose  place  would  then  be  taken  by 
the  chief  Assistant  Examiner,  who  is  also 
appointed  by  the  Emperor,  and  accompanies 
the  Grand  Examiner  from  Peking. 

The  long  strain  of  three  bouts  of  three  days 
each  has  often  been  found  suflScient  to  un- 
hinge the  reason,  with  a  variety  of  distressing 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   117 

consequences,  the  least  perhaps  of  which  may 
be  seen  in  a  regular  percentage  of  blank  papers 
handed  in.  On  one  occasion,  a  man  handed 
in  a  copy  of  his  last  will  and  testament;  on 
another,  not  very  long  ago,  the  mental  bal- 
ance of  the  Grand  Examiner  gave  way,  and  a 
painful  scene  ensued.  He  tore  up  a  number 
of  the  papers  already  handed  in,  and  bit  and 
kicked  every  one  who  came  near  him,  until 
he  was  finally  secured  and  bound  hand  and 
foot  in  his  chair.  A  candidate  once  presented 
himself  dressed  in  woman's  clothes,  with  his 
face  highly  rouged  and  powdered,  as  is  the 
custom.  He  was  arrested  at  the  entrance 
gate,  and  quietly  sent  home  to  his  friends. 

Overwork,  in  the  feverish  desire  to  get  into 
the  Government  service,  is  certainly  responsi- 
ble for  the  mental  break-down  of  a  large 
proportion  of  the  comparatively  few  luna- 
tics found  in  China.  There  being  no  lunatic 
asylums  in  the  empire,  it  is  diflScult  to  form 
anything  like  an  exact  estimate  of  their 
number;  it  can  only  be  said,  what  is  equally 
true  of  cripples  or  deformed  persons,  that  it  is 
very  rare  to  meet  them  in  the  streets  or  even 
to  hear  of  their  existence. 

As  a  further  measure  of  precaution  against 
corrupt  practices  at  examinations,  the  papers 
handed  in  by  the  candidates  are  all  copied  out 


118    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

in  red  ink,  and  only  these  copies  are  sub- 
mitted to  the  examiners.  The  difficulty 
therefore  of  obtaining  favourable  treatment, 
on  the  score  of  either  bribery  or  friendship,  is 
very  much  increased.  The  Chinese,  who 
make  no  attempt  to  conceal  or  excuse,  in  fact 
rather  exaggerate  any  corruption  in  their  pub- 
lic service  generally,  do  not  hesitate  to  declare 
with  striking  unanimity  that  the  conduct  of 
their  examination  system  is  above  suspicion, 
and  there  appears  to  be  no  valid  reason  why 
we  should  not  accept  this  conclusion. 

The  whole  system  is  now  undergoing  certain 
modifications,  which,  if  wisely  introduced, 
should  serve  only  to  strengthen  the  national 
character.  The  Confucian  teachings,  which 
are  of  the  very  highest  order  of  morality,  and 
which  have  moulded  the  Chinese  people  for 
so  many  centuries,  helping  perhaps  to  give 
them  a  cohesion  and  stability  remarkable 
among  the  nations  of  the  world,  should  not 
be  lightly  cast  aside.  A  scientific  training, 
enabling  us  to  annihilate  time  and  space,  to 
extend  indefinitely  the  uses  and  advantages 
of  matter  in  all  its  forms,  and  to  mitigate  the 
burden  of  suffering  which  is  laid  upon  the 
greater  portion  of  the  human  race,  still 
requires  to  be  effectively  supplemented  by  a 
moral  training,  to  teach  man  his  duty  towards 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   119 

his  neighbour.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
science,  the  Chinese  are,  of  course,  wholly 
out  of  date,  though  it  is  only  within  the  past 
hundred  and  fifty  years  that  the  West  has 
so  decisively  outstripped  the  East.  If  we  go 
back  to  the  fifteenth  century,  we  shall  find 
that  the  standard  of  civilization,  as  the  term 
is  usually  understood,  was  still  much  higher 
in  China  than  in  Europe;  while  Marco  Polo, 
the  famous  Venetian  traveller  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  who  actually  lived  twenty- 
four  years  in  China,  and  served  as  an  oflScial 
under  Kublai  Khan,  has  left  it  on  record  that 
the  magnificence  of  Chinese  cities,  and  the 
splendour  of  the  Chinese  court,  outrivalled 
anything  he  had  ever  seen  or  heard  of. 

Pushing  farther  back  into  antiquity,  we 
easily  reach  a  time  when  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Middle  Kingdom  "held  learning  in  high 
esteem,  while  our  own  painted  forefathers 
were  running  naked  and  houseless  in  the 
woods,  and  living  on  berries  and  raw  meat." 
In  inventive,  mechanical  and  engineering 
aptitudes  the  Chinese  have  always  excelled; 
as  witness — only  to  mention  a  few — the  art 
of  printing  {see  below);  their  water-wheels 
and  other  clever  appliances  for  irrigation; 
their  wonderful  bridges  (not  to  mention  the 
Great  Wall) ;  the  "  taxicab,"  or  carriage  fitted 


no  ^THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

with  a  machine  for  recording  the  distance 
traversed,  the  eariiest  notice  of  which  takes 
us  back  to  the  fourth  century  a.d.;  the 
system  of  finger-prints  for  personal  identifica- 
tion, recorded  in  the  seventh  century  a.d.; 
the  carved  ivory  balls  which  contain  even  so 
many  as  nine  or  ten  other  balls,  of  diminishing 
size,  one  within  another;  a  chariot  carrying  a 
figure  which  always  pointed  south,  recorded 
as  in  existence  at  a  very  early  date,  though 
unfortunately  the  specifications  which  have 
come  down  to  us  from  later  dates  will  not 
work  out,  as  in  the  case  of  the  "taxicab." 
The  story  goes  that  this  chariot  was  invented 
about  1100  B.C.,  by  a  wonderful  hero  of  the 
day,  in  order  to  enable  an  ambassador,  who 
had  come  to  the  court  of  China  from  a  far 
distant  country  in  the  south,  to  find  his  way 
expeditiously  home.  The  compass  proper  the 
Chinese  cannot  claim;  it  was  probably  intro- 
duced into  China  by  the  Arabs  at  a  compara- 
tively late  date,  and  has  been  confused  with 
the  south-pointing  chariot  of  earlier  ages.  As 
to  gunpowder,  something  of  that  nature  ap- 
pears to  have  been  used  for  fireworks  in  the 
seventh  century;  and  something  of  the  nature 
of  a  gun  is  first  heard  of  during  the  Mongol 
campaigns  of  the  thirteenth  century;  but 
firearms  were  not  systematically  employed 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   121 

until  the  fifteenth  century.  Add  to  the  above 
the  art  of  casting  bronze,  brought  to  a  high 
pitch  of  excellence  seven  or  eight  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era,  if  not  earlier;  the 
production  of  silk,  mentioned  by  Mencius 
(372-289  B.C.)  as  necessary  for  the  comfort 
of  old  age;  the  cultivation  of  the  tea-plant 
from  time  immemorial;  also  the  discovery 
and  manufacture  of  porcelain  some  sixteen 
centuries  ago,  subsequently  brought  to  a  per- 
fection which  leaves  all  European  attempts 
hopelessly  out-classed. 

In  many  instances  the  Chinese  seem  to 
have  been  so  near  and  yet  so  far.  There  is 
a  distinct  tradition  of  flying  cars  at  a  very 
remote  date;  and  rough  woodcuts  have  been 
handed  down  for  many  centuries,  showing  a 
car  containing  two  passengers,  flying  through 
the  clouds  and  apparently  propelled  by 
wheels  of  a  screw  pattern,  set  at  right  angles 
to  the  direction  in  which  the  travellers  are 
proceeding.  But  there  is  not  a  scrap  of 
evidence  to  show  what  was  the  motive 
power  which  turned  the  wheels.  Similarly, 
iron  ships  are  mentioned  in  Chinese  litera- 
ture so  far  back  as  the  tenth  century,  only, 
however,  to  be  ridiculed  as  an  impossibility; 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  is  hinted  at; 
added  to  which  is  the  marvellous  anticipa- 


122    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

tion  of  anaesthetics  as  applied  to  surgery,  to 
be  mentioned  later  on,  an  idea  which  also 
remained  barren  of  results  for  something 
like  sixteen  centuries,  until  Western  science 
stepped  in  and  secured  the  prize.  Here  it 
may  fairly  be  argued  that,  considering  the 
national  repugnance  to  mutilation  of  the 
body  in  any  form,  it  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected that  the  Chinese  would  seek  to 
facilitate  a  process  to  which  they  so  strongly 
object. 

In  the  domain  of  painting,  we  are  only 
just  beginning  to  awake  to  the  fact  that  in 
this  direction  the  Chinese  have  reached 
heights  denied  to  all  save  artists  of  supreme 
power,  and  that  their  art  was  already  on  a 
lofty  level  many  centuries  before  our  own 
great  representatives  had  begun  to  put 
brush  to  canvas.  Without  going  so  far  back 
as  the  famous  picture  in  the  British  Museum, 
by  an  artist  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries 
A.D.,  the  point  may  perhaps  be  emphasized 
by  quotation  from  the  words  of  a  leading 
art-critic,  referring  to  painters  of  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  centuries: — "To  the  Sung 
artists  and  poets,  mountains  were  a  pas- 
sion, as  to  Wordsworth.  The  landscape 
art  thus  founded,  and  continued  by  the 
Japanese    in    the    fifteenth    century,    must 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   US 

rank  as  the  greatest  school  of  landscape 
which  the  world  has  seen.  It  is  the  imagina- 
tive picturing  of  what  is  most  elemental  and 
most  august  in  Nature — liberating  visions 
of  storm  or  peace  among  abrupt  peaks, 
plunging  torrents,  trembling  reed-beds — and 
though  having  a  fantastic  side  for  its  weak- 
ness, can  never  have  the  reproach  of  pretty 
tameness  and  mere  fidelity  which  form  too 
often  the  only  ideal  of  Western  landscape." 

Great  Chinese  artists  unite  in  dismissing 
fidelity  to  outline  as  of  little  importance 
compared  with  reproduction  of  the  spirit  of 
the  object  painted.  To  paint  a  tree  success- 
fully, it  is  necessary  to  produce  not  merely 
shape  and  colour  but  the  vitality  and  ^^soul" 
of  the  original.  Until  within  the  last  two  or 
three  centuries,  nature  itself  was  always  ap- 
pealed to  as  the  one  source  of  true  inspira- 
tion; then  came  the  artist  of  the  studio, 
since  which  time  Chinese  art  has  languished, 
while  Japanese  art,  learnt  at  the  feet  of 
Chinese  artists  from  the  fourteenth  century 
onwards,  has  come  into  prominent  notice, 
and  is  now,  with  extraordinary  versatility, 
attempting  to  assimilate  the  ideals  of  the 
West. 

The  following  words  were  written  by  a 
Chinese  painter  of  the  fifth  century: — 


124    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

"To  gaze  upon  the  clouds  of  autumn,  a 
soaring  exaltation  in  the  soul;  to  feel  the 
spring  breeze  stirring  wild  exultant  thoughts; 
— what  is  there,  in  the  possession  of  gold  and 
gems  to  compare  with  delights  like  these? 
And  then,  to  unroll  the  portfolio  and  spread 
the  silk,  and  to  transfer  to  it  the  glories  of 
flood  and  fell,  the  green  forest,  the  blowing 
winds,  the  white  water  of  the  rushing  cas- 
cade, as  with  a  turn  of  the  hand  a  divine 
influence  descends  upon  the  scene.  .  .  . 
These  are  the  joys  of  painting." 

Just  as  in  poetry,  so  in  pictorial  art,  the 
artist  avoids  giving  full  expression  to  his 
theme,  and  leaving  nothing  for  the  spectator 
to  supply  by  his  own  imaginative  powers. 
"Suggestion"  is  the  key-note  to  both  the 
above  arts;  and  in  both,  "Impressionism" 
has  been  also  at  the  command  of  the  gifted, 
centuries  before  the  term  had  passed  into 
the  English  language. 

Literature  and  art  are  indeed  very  closely 
associated  in  China.  Every  literary  man  is 
supposed  to  be  more  or  less  a  painter,  or  a 
musician  of  sorts;  failing  personal  skill,  it 
would  go  without  saying  that  he  was  a 
critic,  or  at  the  lowest  a  lover,  of  one  or  the 
other  art,  or  of  both.  All  Chinese  men, 
women  and  children  seem  to  love  flowers; 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   125 

and  the  poetry  which  has  gathered  around 
the  blossoms  of  plum  and  almond  alone 
would  form  a  not  inconsiderable  library  of 
itself.  Yet  a  European  bouquet  would  ap- 
pear to  a  man  of  culture  as  little  short  of  a 
monstrosity;  for  to  enjoy  flowers,  a  China- 
man must  see  only  a  single  spray  at  a  time. 
The  poorly  paid  clerk  will  bring  with  him  to 
his  oflice  in  the  morning  some  trifling  bud, 
which  he  will  stick  into  a  tiny  vase  of  water, 
and  place  beside  him  on  his  desk.  The  owner 
of  what  may  be  a  whole  gallery  of  pictures 
will  invite  you  to  tea,  followed  by  an  inspec- 
tion of  his  treasures;  but  on  the  same  after- 
noon he  will  only  produce  perhaps  a  single 
specimen,  and  scout  the  idea  that  any  one 
could  call  for  more.  If  a  long  landscape, 
it  will  be  gradually  unwound  from  its  roller, 
and  a  portion  at  a  time  will  be  submitted  for 
the  enjoyment  and  criticism  of  his  visitors; 
if  a  religious  or  historical  picture,  or  a  pic- 
ture of  birds  or  flowers,  of  which  the  whole 
effort  must  be  viewed  in  its  completeness,  it 
will  be  studied  in  various  senses,  during  the 
intervals  between  a  chat  and  a  cup  of  tea. 
Such  concentration  is  absolutely  essential, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Chinese  critic,  to  a  true 
interpretation  of  the  artist's  meaning,  and 
to  a  just  appreciation  of  his  success. 


126    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

The  marvellous  old  stories  of  grapes 
painted  by  Zeuxis  of  ancient  Greece,  so 
naturally  that  birds  came  to  peck  at  them; 
and  of  the  curtain  painted  by  Parrhasius 
which  Zeuxis  himself  tried  to  pull  aside;  and 
of  the  horse  by  Apelles  at  which  another 
horse  neighed — all  these  find  their  counter- 
parts in  the  literature  of  Chinese  art.  One 
painter,  in  quite  early  days,  painted  a  perch 
and  hung  it  over  a  river  bank,  when  there 
was  immediately  a  rush  of  otters  to  secure 
it.  Another  painted  the  creases  on  cotton 
clothes  so  exactly  that  the  clothes  looked  as 
if  they  had  just  come  from  the  wash.  An- 
other produced  pictures  of  cats  which  would 
keep  a  place  free  from  rats.  All  these  efforts 
were  capped  by  those  of  another  artist, 
whose  picture  of  the  North  Wind  made 
people  feel  cold,  while  his  picture  of  the 
South  Wind  made  people  feel  hot.  Such 
exaggerations  are  not  altogether  without 
their  value;  they  suggest  that  Chinese  art 
must  have  reached  a  high  level,  and  this  has 
recently  been  shown  to  be  nothing  more 
than  the  truth,  by  the  splendid  exhibition 
of  Chinese  pictures  recently  on  view  in  the 
British  Museum. 

The  literary  activities  of  the  Chinese,  and 
their  output  of  literature,  have  always  been 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION    127 

on  a  colossal  scale;  and  of  course  it  is  en- 
tirely due  to  the  early  invention  of  printing 
that,  although  a  very  large  number  of  works 
have  disappeared,  still  an  enormous  bulk 
has  survived  the  ravages  of  war,  rebellion 
and  fire. 

This  art  was  rather  developed  than  in- 
vented. There  is  no  date,  within  a  margin 
even  of  half  a  century  each  way,  at  which 
we  can  say  that  printing  was  invented.  The 
germ  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the  engraving 
of  seals,  which  have  been  used  by  the  Chinese 
as  far  back  as  we  can  go  with  anything  like 
historical  certainty,  and  also  of  stone  tablets 
from  which  rubbings  were  taken,  the  most 
important  of  these  being  the  forty-six  tablets 
on  which  five  of  the  sacred  books  of  Con- 
fucianism were  engraved  about  a.d.  170, 
and  of  which  portions  still  remain.  However 
this  may  be,  it  was  during  the  sixth  century 
A.D.  that  the  idea  of  taking  impressions  on 
paper  from  wooden  blocks  seems  to  have 
arisen,  chiefly  in  connexion  with  religious 
pictures  and  tracts.  It  was  not  widely  ap- 
plied to  the  production  of  books  in  general 
until  A.D.  932,  when  the  Confucian  Canon 
was  so  printed  for  the  first  time;  from  which 
point  onwards  the  extension  of  the  art  moved 
with  rapid  strides. 


128    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

It  is  very  noticeable  that  the  Chinese,  who 
are  extraordinarily  averse  to  novelties,  and 
can  hardly  be  induced  to  consider  any  inno- 
vations, when  once  convinced  of  their  real 
utility,  waste  no  further  time  in  securing  to 
themselves  all  the  advantages  which  may 
accrue.  This  was  forcibly  illustrated  in  re- 
gard to  the  introduction  of  the  telegraph, 
against  which  the  Chinese  had  set  their 
faces,  partly  because  of  the  disturbance  of 
geomantic  influences  caused  by  the  tall  tele- 
graph poles,  and  partly  because  they  sin- 
cerely doubted  that  the  wires  could  achieve 
the  results  claimed.  But  when  it  was  dis- 
covered that  some  wily  Cantonese  had 
learnt  over  the  telegraph  the  names  of  the 
three  highest  graduates  at  the  Peking  trien- 
nial examination,  weeks  before  the  names 
could  be  known  in  Canton  by  the  usual 
route,  and  had  enriched  himself  by  buying 
up  the  tickets  bearing  those  names  in  the 
great  lotteries  which  are  always  held  in  con- 
nexion with  this  event,  Chinese  opposition 
went  down  like  a  house  of  cards;  and  the 
only  question  with  many  of  the  literati  was 
whether,  at  some  remote  date,  the  Chinese 
had  not  invented  telegraphy  themselves. 

Movable  types  of  baked  clay  were  in- 
vented about  A.D,  1043,  and  some  centuries 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION  129 

later  they  were  made  of  wood  and  of  copper 
or  lead;  but  they  have  never  gained  the 
favour  accorded  to  block-printing,  by  which 
most  of  the  great  literary  works  have  been 
produced.  The  newspapers  of  modern  days 
are  all  printed  from  movable  types,  and  also 
many  translations  of  foreign  books,  pre- 
pared to  meet  the  increasing  demand  for 
Western  learning.  The  Chinese  have  always 
been  a  great  reading  people,  systematic  edu- 
cation culminating  in  competitive  examina- 
tions for  students  going  back  to  the  second 
century  a.d.  This  is  perhaps  a  suitable 
place  for  explaining  that  the  famous  Peking 
Gazette^  often  said  to  be  the  oldest  news- 
paper in  the  world,  is  not  really  a  news- 
paper at  all,  in  that  it  contains  no  news  in 
our  sense  of  the  term.  It  is  a  record  only  of 
court  movements,  list  of  promoted  officials, 
with  a  few  selected  memorials  and  edicts. 
It  is  published  daily,  but  was  not  printed 
until  the  fifteenth  century. 

Every  Chinese  boy  may  be  said  to  have 
his  chance.  The  slightest  sign  of  a  capacity 
for  book-learning  is  watched  for,  even  among 
the  poorest.  Besides  the  opportunity  of  free 
schools,  a  clever  boy  will  soon  find  a  patron; 
and  in  many  cases,  the  funds  for  carrying 
on  a  curriculum,  and  for  entering  the  first  of 


130    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  great  competitions,  will  be  subscribed  in 
the  district,  on  which  the  candidate  wiU 
confer  a  lasting  honour  by  his  success.  A 
promising  young  graduate,  who  has  won  his 
first  degree  with  honours,  is  at  once  an  ob- 
ject of  importance  to  wealthy  fathers  who 
desire  to  secure  him  as  a  son-in-law,  and  who 
will  see  that  money  is  not  wanting  to  carry 
him  triumphantly  up  the  official  ladder. 
Boys  without  any  gifts  of  the  kind  required, 
remain  to  fill  the  humbler  positions;  those 
who  advance  to  a  certain  point  are  drafted 
into  trade;  while  hosts  of  others  who  just 
fall  short  of  the  highest,  become  tutors  in 
private  families,  schoolmasters,  doctors,  for- 
tune-tellers, geomancers,  and  booksellers' 
hacks. 

Of  high-class  Chinese  literature,  it  is  not 
possible  to  give  even  the  faintest  idea  in  the 
space  at  disposal.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that 
all  branches  are  adequately  represented, 
histories,  biographies,  philosophy,  poetry  and 
essays  on  all  manner  of  subjects,  offering  a 
wide  field  even  to  the  most  insatiate  reader. 

And  here  a  remark  may  be  interjected, 
which  is  very  necessary  for  the  information 
of  those  who  wish  to  form  a  true  estimate  of 
the  Chinese  people.  Throughout  the  Con- 
fucian Canon,  a  collection  of  ancient  works 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   131 

on  which  the  moral  code  of  the  Chinese  is 
based,  there  is  not  a  single  word  which  could 
give  offence,  even  to  the  most  sensitive,  on 
questions  of  delicacy  and  decency.  That  is 
surely  saying  a  good  deal,  but  it  is  not  all; 
precisely  the  same  may  be  affirmed  of  what  is 
mentioned  above  as  high-class  Chinese  litera- 
ture, which  is  pure  enough  to  satisfy  the  nlost 
strait-laced.  Chinese  poetry,  of  which  there 
is  in  existence  a  huge  mass,  will  be  searched 
in  vain  for  suggestions  of  impropriety,  for 
sly  innuendo,  and  for  the  other  tricks  of  the 
unclean.  This  extraordinary  purity  of  Ian- 
gauge  is  all  the  more  remarkable  from  the 
fact  that,  until  recent  years,  the  education 
of  women  has  not  been  at  all  general,  though 
many  particular  instances  are  recorded  of 
women  who  have  themselves  achieved  suc- 
cesses in  literary  pursuits.  It  is  only  when 
we  come  to  the  novel,  to  the  short  story,  or 
to  the  anecdote,  which  are  not  usually  writ- 
ten in  high-class  style,  and  are  therefore  not 
recognized  as  literature  proper,  that  this  ex- 
alted standard  is  no  longer  always  maintained. 
There  are,  indeed,  a  great  number  of 
novels,  chiefly  historical  and  religious,  in 
which  the  aims  of  the  writers  are  on  a  suffici- 
ently high  level  to  keep  them  clear  of  what  is 
popularly    known    as   pornography    or   pig- 


132    THE  CIVILIZATION  OP  CHINA 

writing;  still,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  there 
remains  a  balance  of  writing  curiously  in  con- 
trast with  the  great  bulk  of  Chinese  litera- 
ture proper.  As  to  the  novel,  the  long  story 
with  a  worked-out  plot,  this  is  not  really  a 
local  product.  It  seems  to  have  come  along 
with  the  Mongols  from  Central  Asia,  when 
they  conquered  China  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  estabhshed  their  short-lived  dy- 
nasty. Some  novels,  in  spite  of  their  low 
moral  tone,  are  exceedingly  well  written  and 
clever,  graphic  in  description,  and  dramatic 
in  episode;  but  it  is  curious  that  no  writer  of 
the  first  rank  has  ever  attached  his  name  to  a 
novel,  and  that  the  authorship  of  all  the 
cleverest  is  a  matter  of  entire  uncertainty. 

The  low-class  novel  is  purposely  pitched  in 
a  style  that  will  be  easily  understood;  but 
even  so,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  word-  and 
phrase-skipping  to  be  done  by  many  illiterate 
readers,  who  are  quite  satisfied  if  they  can 
extract  the  general  sense  as  they  go  along. 
The  book-language,  as  cultivated  by  the  best 
writers,  is  to  be  freely  understood  only  by 
those  who  have  stocked  their  minds  well  with 
the  extensive  phraseology  which  has  been 
gradually  created  by  eminent  men  during 
the  past  twenty-five  centuries,  and  with 
historical    and    biographical    allusions    and 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION   13S 

references  of  all  sorts  and  kinds.  A  word  or 
two,  suggesting  some  apposite  allusion,  will 
often  greatly  enhance  the  beauty  of  a  com- 
position for  the  connoisseur,  but  will  fall  flat 
on  the  ears  of  those  to  whom  the  quotation 
is  unknown.  Simple  objects  in  everyday 
life  often  receive  quaint  names,  as  handed 
down  in  literature,  with  which  it  is  neces- 
sary to  be  famihar.  For  instance,  a  "fairy 
umbrella"  means  a  mushroom;  a  "gentleman 
of  the  beam"  is  a  burglar,  because  a  burglar 
was  once  caught  sitting  on  one  of  the  open 
beams  inside  a  Chinese  roof;  a  "slender 
waist"  is  a  wasp;  the  "throat  olive"  is  the 
"Adam's  apple" — which,  by  the  way,  is  an 
excellent  illustration  from  the  opposite  point 
of  view;  "eyebrow  notes"  means  notes  at 
the  top  of  a  page;  "cap  words"  is  sometimes 
used  for  "preface;"  the  " sweeper-away  of 
care"  is  wine;  "golden  balls"  are  oranges; 
the  "golden  tray"  is  the  moon;  a  "two- 
haired  man"  is  a  grey-beard;  the  "hundred 
holes"  is  a  beehive;  "instead  of  the  moon" 
is  a  lantern;  "instead  of  steps"  is  a  horse; 
"the  man  with  the  wooden  skirt"  is  a  shop- 
man; to  "scatter  sleep"  means  to  give  hush- 
money;   and  so  on,  almost  ad  infinitum, 

Chinese  medical  literature  is  on  a  very  vo- 
luminous scale,  medicine  having  always  oc- 


134    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

cupied  a  high  place  in  the  estimation  of  the 
people,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  its  practice 
has  always  been  left  to  any  one  who  might 
choose  to  take  it  up.  Surgery,  even  of  an 
elementary  kind,  has  never  had  a  chance;  for 
the  Chinese  are  extremely  loath  to  suflfer  any 
interference  with  their  bodies,  believing,  in 
accordance  with  Confucian  dogma,  that  as 
they  received  them  from  their  parents,  so 
they  should  carry  them  into  the  presence  of 
their  ancestors  in  the  next  world.  Medicine, 
as  still  practised  in  China,  may  be  compared 
with  the  European  art  of  a  couple  of  centuries 
ago,  and  its  exceedingly  doubtful  results  are 
fully  appreciated  by  patients  at  large.  "No 
medicine,"  says  one  proverb,  "is  better  than 
a  middling  doctor;"  while  another  points 
out  that  "Many  sons  of  clever  doctors  die 
of  disease." 

Legend,  however,  tells  us  of  an  extraor- 
dinary physician  of  the  fifth  century  B.C. 
who  was  able  to  see  into  the  viscera  of  his 
patients — an  apparent  anticipation  of  the 
X-rays — and  who,  by  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  human  pulse,  eflFected  many  astound- 
ing cures.  We  also  read  of  an  eminent  phy- 
sician of  the  second  and  third  centuries  a.d. 
who  did  add  surgery  to  his  other  qualifica- 
tions.   He  was  skilled  in  the  use  of  acupunc- 


LITERATURE  AND  EDUCATION  135 

ture  and  cautery;  but  if  these  failed  he  would 
render  his  patient  unconscious  by  a  dose  of 
hashish,  and  then  operate  surgically.  He  is 
said  to  have  diagnosed  a  case  of  diseased 
bowels  by  the  pulse  alone,  and  then  to  have 
cured  it  by  operation.  He  offered  to  cure  the 
headaches  of  a  famous  military  commander  of 
the  day  by  opening  his  skull  under  hashish; 
but  the  offer  was  rudely  declined.  This  story 
serves  to  show,  in  spite  of  its  marvellous 
setting,  that  the  idea  of  administering  an 
anaesthetic  to  carry  out  a  surgical  operation 
must  be  credited,  so  far  as  priority  goes,  to  the 
Chinese,  since  the  book  in  which  the  above 
account  is  given  cannot  have  been  composed 
later  than  the  twelfth  century  a,d. 


CHAPTER  Vn 

PHILOSOPHY  AND   SPORT 

Chinese  philosophy  covers  altogether  too 
large  a  field  to  be  dealt  with,  even  in  outline, 
on  a  scale  suitable  to  this  volume;  only  a 
few  of  its  chief  features  can  possibly  be  ex- 
hibited in  the  space  at  disposal. 

Beginning  with  moral  philosophy,  we  are 
confronted  at  once  with  what  was  in  early 
days  an  extremely  vexed  question;  not  per- 
haps entirely  set  at  rest  even  now,  but 
allowed  to  remain  in  suspense  amid  the  uni- 
versal acceptance  of  Confucian  teachings. 
Confucius  himself  taught  in  no  indistinct 
terms  that  man  is  born  good,  and  that  he  be- 
comes evil  only  by  contact  with  evil  surround- 
ings. He  does  not  enlarge  upon  this  dogma, 
but  states  it  baldly  as  a  natural  law,  little  an- 
ticipating that  within  a  couple  of  centuries 
it  was  to  be  called  seriously  in  question.  It 
remained  for  his  great  follower,  Mencius,  born 
a  hundred  years  later,  to  defend  the  proposi- 
tion against  all  comers,  and  especially  against 

136 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         137 

one  of  no  mean  standing,  the  philosopher  Kao 
(Cow).  Kao  declared  that  righteousness  is 
only  to  be  got  out  of  man's  nature  in  the  same 
way  that  good  cups  and  bowls  are  to  be  got 
out  of  a  block  of  willow  wood,  namely,  by 
care  in  fashioning  them.  Improper  workman- 
ship would  produce  bad  results;  good  work- 
manship, on  the  other  hand,  would  produce 
good  results.  In  plain  words,  the  nature 
of  man  at  birth  is  neither  good  nor  bad;  and 
what  it  becomes  afterwards  depends  entirely 
upon  what  influences  have  been  brought  to 
bear  and  in  what  surroundings  it  has  come  to 
maturity.  Mencius  met  this  argument  by 
showing  that  in  the  process  of  extracting 
cups  and  bowls  from  a  block  of  wood,  the 
wood  as  a  block  is  destroyed,  and  he  pointed 
out  that,  according  to  such  reasoning,  man's 
nature  would  also  be  destroyed  in  the  process 
of  getting  righteousness  out  of  it. 

Again,  Kao  maintained  that  man's  nature 
has  as  Kttle  concern  with  good  or  evil  as 
water  has  with  east  or  west;  for  water  will 
flow  indifferently  either  one  way  or  the  other, 
according  to  the  conditions  in  each  case.  If 
there  is  freedom  on  the  east,  it  will  flow  east; 
if  there  is  freedom  on  the  west,  it  will  flow 
west;  and  so  with  human  nature,  which  will 
move  similarly  in  the  direction  of  either  good 


138     THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

or  evil.  In  reply,  Mencius  freely  admitted 
that  water  would  flow  either  east  or  west; 
but  he  asked  if  it  would  flow  indifferently  up 
or  down.  He  then  declared  that  the  bent  of 
human  nature  towards  good  is  precisely  like 
the  tendency  of  water  to  flow  down  and  not 
up.  You  can  force  water  to  jump  up,  he  said, 
by  striking  it,  and  by  mechanical  appliances 
you  can  make  it  flow  to  the  top  of  a  hill;  but 
what  you  do  in  such  cases  is  entirely  contrary 
to  the  nature  of  water,  and  is  merely  the  re- 
sult of  violence,  such  violence,  in  fact,  as  is 
brought  into  play  when  man's  nature  is  bent 
towards  evil. 

"That  which  men  get  at  birth,"  said  Kao, 
"is  their  nature,"  implying  that  all  natures 
were  the  same,  just  as  the  whiteness  of  a 
white  feather  is  the  same  as  the  whiteness 
of  white  snow;  whereupon  Mencius  showed 
that  on  this  principle  the  nature  of  a  dog 
would  be  the  same  as  that  of  an  ox,  or  the 
nature  of  an  ox  the  same  as  that  of  a  man. 
Finally,  Mencius  declared  that  for  whatever 
evil  men  may  commit,  their  natures  can  in 
nowise  be  blamed.  In  prosperous  times,  he 
argued,  men  are  mostly  good,  whereas  in 
times  of  scarcity  the  opposite  is  the  case; 
these  two  conditions,  however,  are  not  to  be 
charged  against  the  natures  with  which  God 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT  139 

sent  them  into  the  world,  but  against  the 
circumstances  in  which  the  individuals  in 
question  have  been  situated. 

The  question,  however,  of  man's  original 
nature  was  not  set  permanently  at  rest  by 
the  arguments  of  Mencius.  A  philosopher, 
named  Hslin  Tzii  (Sheundza),  who  flourished 
not  very  much  later  than  Mencius,  came 
forward  with  the  theory  that  so  far  from  being 
good  according  to  Confucius,  or  even  neutral 
according  to  Kao,  the  nature  of  man  at  birth 
is  positively  evil.  He  supports  this  view  by 
the  following  arguments.  From  his  earliest 
years,  man  is  actuated  by  a  love  of  gain  for 
his  own  personal  enjoyment.  His  conduct  is 
distinguished  by  selfishness  and  combative- 
ness.  He  becomes  a  slave  to  envy,  hatred, 
and  other  passions.  The  restraint  of  law, 
and  the  influence  and  guidance  of  teachers, 
are  absolutely  necessary  to  good  government 
and  the  well-being  of  social  life.  Just  as 
wood  must  be  subjected  to  pressure  in  order 
to  make  it  straight,  and  metal  must  be  sub- 
jected to  the  grindstone  in  order  to  make  it 
sharp,  so  must  the  nature  of  man  be  subjected 
to  training  and  education  in  order  to  obtain 
from  it  the  virtues  of  justice  and  self-sacrifice 
which  characterize  the  best  of  the  human  race. 
It  is  impossible  to  maintain  that  man's  nature 


140    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

is  good  in  the  same  sense  that  his  eyes  see 
and  his  ears  hear;  for  in  the  latter  there  is 
no  alternative.  An  eye  which  does  not  see, 
is  not  an  eye;  an  ear  which  does  not  hear,  is 
not  an  ear.  This  proves  that  whereas  seeing 
and  hearing  are  natural  to  man,  goodness  is 
artificial  and  acquired.  Just  as  a  potter 
produces  a  dish  or  a  carpenter  a  bench, 
working  on  some  material  before  them,  so  do 
the  sages  and  teachers  of  mankind  produce 
righteousness  by  working  upon  the  nature 
of  man,  which  they  transform  in  the  same 
way  that  the  potter  transforms  the  clay  or 
the  carpenter  the  wood.  We  cannot  believe 
that  God  has  favourites,  and  deals  unkindly 
with  others.  How,  then,  is  it  that  some  men 
are  evil  while  others  are  good?  The  answer 
is,  that  the  former  follow  their  natural  dis- 
position, while  the  latter  submit  to  restraints 
and  follow  the  guidance  of  their  teachers.  It 
is  indeed  true  that  any  one  may  become  a 
hero,  but  all  men  do  not  necessarily  become 
heroes,  nor  is  there  any  method  by  which 
they  can  be  forced  to  do  so.  If  a  man  is  en- 
dowed with  a  capacity  for  improvement,  and 
is  placed  in  the  hands  of  good  teachers,  as- 
sociating at  the  same  time  with  friends  whose 
actions  display  such  virtues  as  self-sacrifice, 
truth,  kindness,  and  so  forth,  he  will  naturally 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         141 

imbibe  principles  which  will  raise  him  to  the 
same  standard;  whereas,  if  he  consorts  with 
evil  livers,  he  will  be  a  daily  witness  of  deceit, 
corruption,  and  general  impurity  of  conduct, 
and  will  gradually  lapse  into  the  same  course 
of  life.  If  you  do  not  know  your  son,  says  the 
proverb,  look  at  his  friends. 

The  next  step  was  taken  by  the  philosopher 
Yang  Hsiung  (Sheeyoong) ,  53  B.C.  to  a.d.  18. 
He  started  a  theory  which  occupies  a  middle 
place  between  the  last  two  theories  discussed 
above,  teaching  that  the  nature  of  man  at 
birth  is  neither  wholly  good  nor  wholly  evil, 
but  a  mixture  of  both,  and  that  development 
in  either  direction  depends  altogether  on  en- 
vironment. A  compromise  in  matters  of 
faith  is  not  nearly  so  picturesque  as  an  ex- 
treme, and  Yang's  attempted  solution  has 
attracted  but  scant  attention,  though  always 
mentioned  with  respect.  The  same  may  also 
be  said  of  another  attempt  to  smooth  obvious 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  accepting  either  of 
the  two  extremes  or  the  middle  course  pro- 
posed by  Yang  Hsiung.  The  famous  Han  Yii, 
to  be  mentioned  again  shortly,  was  a  pillar 
and  prop  of  Confucianism.  He  flourished  be- 
tween A.D.  768  and  824,  and  performed  such 
lasting  services  in  what  was  to  him  the  cause 
of  truth,  that  his  tablet  has  been  placed  in  the 


142     THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Confucian  temple,  an  honour  reserved  only 
for  those  whose  orthodoxy  is  beyond  sus- 
picion. Yet  he  ventured  upon  an  attempt  to 
modify  this  important  dogma,  taking  care  all 
the  time  to  appear  as  if  he  were  criticizing 
Mencius  rather  than  Confucius,  on  whom,  of 
course,  the  real  responsibility  rests.  He  de- 
clared, solely  upon  his  own  authority,  that 
the  nature  of  man  is  not  uniform  but  divided 
into  three  grades  —  namely,  highest,  middle, 
and  lowest.  Thus,  natures  of  the  highest 
grade  are  good,  wholly  good,  and  nothing  but 
good;  natures  of  the  lowest  grade  are  evil, 
wholly  evil,  and  nothing  but  evil;  while 
natures  of  the  middle  grade  may,  under 
right  direction,  rise  to  the  highest  grade, 
or,  under  wrong  direction,  sink  to  the 
lowest. 

Another  question,  much  debated  in  the 
age  of  Mencius,  arose  out  of  the  rival  state- 
ments of  two  almost  contemporary  philoso- 
phers. Mo  Ti  (Maw  Tee)  and  Yang  Chu. 
The  former  taught  a  system  of  mutual  and 
consequently  universal  love  as  a  cure  for 
all  the  ills  arising  from  misgovernment  and 
want  of  social  harmony.  He  pointed  out, 
with  much  truth,  that  if  the  feudal  states 
would  leave  one  another  alone,  families 
cease  to  quarrel,  and  thieves  cease  to  steal. 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         143 

while  sovereign  and  subject  lived  on  terms 
of  benevolence  and  loyalty,  and  fathers  and 
sons  on  terms  of  kindness  and  filial  piety — 
then  indeed  the  empire  would  be  well  gov- 
erned. But  beyond  suggesting  the  in- 
fluence of  teachers  in  the  prohibition  of 
hatred  and  the  encouragement  of  mutual 
love,  our  philosopher  does  little  or  noth- 
ing to  aid  us  in  reaching  such  a  desirable 
consummation. 

The  doctrine  of  Yang  Chu  is  summed  up 
as  "every  man  for  himself,"  and  is  therefore 
diametrically  opposed  to  that  of  Mo  Ti.  A 
questioner  one  day  asked  him  if  he  would 
consent  to  part  with  a  single  hair  in  order  to 
benefit  the  whole  world.  Yang  Chu  replied 
that  a  single  hair  could  be  of  no  possible 
benefit  to  the  world;  and  on  being  further 
pressed  to  say  what  he  would  do  if  a  hair 
were  really  of  such  benefit,  it  is  stated  that 
he  gave  no  answer.  On  the  strength  of  this 
story,  Mencius  said:  "Yang's  principle  was, 
every  man  for  himself.  Though  by  plucking 
out  a  single  hair  he  might  have  benefited 
the  whole  world,  he  would  not  have  done  so. 
Mo's  system  was  universal  love.  If  by  tak- 
ing off  every  hair  from  the  crown  of  his 
head  to  the  sole  of  his  foot  he  could  have 
benefited  the  empire,  he  would  have  done 


144    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

so.    Neither  of  these  two  doctrines  is  sound; 
a  middle  course  is  the  right  one." 

The  origin  of  the  visible  universe  is  a 
question  on  which  Chinese  philosophers 
have  very  naturally  been  led  to  speculate. 
Legend  provides  us  with  a  weird  being  named 
P'an  Ku,  who  came  into  existence,  no  one 
can  quite  say  how,  endowed  with  perfect 
knowledge,  his  function  being  to  set  the 
gradually  developing  universe  in  order.  He 
is  often  represented  pictorially  with  a  huge 
adze  in  his  hand,  and  engaged  in  construct- 
ing the  world  out  of  the  matter  which  has 
just  begun  to  take  shape.  With  his  death 
the  detailed  part  of  creation  appeared.  His 
breath  became  the  wind;  his  voice,  the 
thunder;  his  left  eye,  the  sun;  his  right  eye, 
the  moon;  his  blood  yielded  rivers;  his  hair 
grew  into  trees  and  plants;  his  flesh  became 
the  soil;  his  sweat  descended  as  rain;  and 
the  parasites  which  infested  his  body  were 
the  forerunners  of  the  human  race.  This 
sort  of  stuff,  however,  could  only  appeal  to 
the  illiterate;  for  intellectual  and  educated 
persons  something  more  was  required.  And 
so  it  came  about  that  a  system,  based  origi- 
nally upon  the  quite  incomprehensible  Book 
of  Changes,  generally  regarded  as  the  oldest 
portion  of  the  Confucian  Canon,  was  gradu- 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         145 

ally  elaborated  and  brought  to  a  finite  state 
during  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  of 
our  era.  According  to  this  system,  there  was 
a  time,  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  expres- 
sion in  figures,  when  nothing  at  all  existed. 
In  the  period  which  followed,  there  came 
into  existence,  spontaneously,  a  principle, 
which  after  another  lapse  of  time  resolved  it- 
self into  two  principles  with  entirely  opposite 
characteristics.  One  of  these  principles  repre- 
sented light,  heat,  masculinity,  and  similar 
phenomena  classed  as  positive;  the  other 
represented  darkness,  cold,  femininity,  and 
other  phenomena  classed  as  negative.  The 
interaction  of  these  two  principles  in  duly 
adjusted  proportions  produced  the  five  ele- 
ments, earth,  fire,  water,  wood,  and  metal; 
and  with  their  assistance  all  Nature  as  we 
see  it  around  us  was  easily  and  rapidly  de- 
veloped. Such  is  the  Confucian  theory,  at 
any  rate  so  called,  for  it  cannot  be  shown 
that  Confucius  ever  entertained  these  no- 
tions, and  his  alleged  connexion  with  the 
Canon  of  Changes  is  itself  of  doubtful 
authenticity. 

Chuang  Tzu  (Chwongdza) ,  a  philosopher 
of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  B.C.,  who 
was  not  only  a  mystic  but  also  a  moralist 
and  a  social  reformer,  has  something  to  say 


146    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

on  the  subject:  "If  there  is  existence,  there 
must  have  been  non-existence.  And  if 
there  was  a  time  when  nothing  existed,  then 
there  must  have  been  a  time  before  that, 
when  even  nothing  did  not  exist.  Then 
when  nothing  came  into  existence,  could 
one  really  say  whether  it  belonged  to  ex- 
istence or  non-existence? '* 

"Nothing"  was  rather  a  favourite  term 
with  Chuang  Tzu  for  the  exercise  of  his  wit. 
Light  asked  Nothing,  saying:  "Do  you,  sir, 
exist,  or  do  you  not  exist?"  But  getting  no 
answer  to  his  question.  Light  set  to  work 
to  watch  for  the  appearance  of  Nothing. 
Hidden,  vacuous — all  day  long  he  looked 
but  could  not  see  it,  listened  but  could  not 
hear  it,  grasped  at  but  could  not  seize  it. 
"Bravo!"  cried  Light;  "who  can  equal 
this  ?  I  can  get  to  be  nothing  [meaning 
darkness],  but  I  can't  get  to  be  not  nothing." 

Confucius  would  have  nothing  to  say  on 
the  subject  of  death  and  a  future  state;  his 
theme  was  consistently  this  life  and  its  ob- 
ligations, and  he  regarded  speculation  on 
the  unknown  as  sheer  waste  of  time.  When 
one  of  three  friends  died  and  Confucius  sent 
a  disciple  to  condole  with  the  other  two,  the 
disciple  found  them  sitting  by  the  side  of 
the  corpse,  merrily  singing  and  playing  on 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         147 

the  lute.  They  professed  the  then  com- 
paratively new  faith  which  taught  that  life 
was  a  dream  and  death  the  awakening. 
They  believed  that  at  death  the  pure  man 
*' mounts  to  heaven,  and  roaming  through 
the  clouds,  passes  beyond  the  limits  of 
space,  oblivious  of  existence,  for  ever  and 
ever  without  end."  When  the  shocked  dis- 
ciple reported  what  he  had  seen,  Confucius 
said,  "These  men  travel  beyond  the  rule  of 
life;  I  travel  within  it.  Consequently,  our 
paths  do  not  meet;  and  I  was  wrong  in  send- 
ing you  to  mourn.  They  look  on  life  as  a 
huge  tumour  from  which  death  sets  them 
free.  All  the  same  they  know  not  where 
they  were  before  birth,  nor  where  they  will 
be  after  death.  They  ignore  their  passions. 
They  take  no  account  of  their  ears  and  eyes. 
Backwards  and  forwards  through  all  eternity, 
they  do  not  admit  a  beginning  or  an  end. 
They  stroll  beyond  the  dust  and  dirt  of  mor- 
tality, to  wander  in  the  realms  of  inaction. 
How  should  such  men  trouble  themselves 
with  the  conventionalities  of  this  world,  or 
care  what  people  may  think  of  them?" 

Life  comes,  says  Chuang  Tzii,  and  cannot 
be  declined;  it  goes,  and  cannot  be  stopped. 
But  alas,  the  world  thinks  that  to  nourish 
the  physical  frame  is  enough  to  preserve  life. 


148    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Although  not  enough,  it  must  still  be  done; 
this  cannot  be  neglected.  For  if  one  is  to 
neglect  the  physical  frame,  better  far  to  re- 
tire at  once  from  the  world,  since  by  renounc- 
ing the  world  one  gets  rid  of  the  cares  of  the 
world.  There  is,  however,  the  vitality  which 
informs  the  physical  frame;  that  must  be 
equally  an  object  of  incessant  care.  Then 
he  whose  physical  frame  is  perfect  and  whose 
vitality  remains  in  its  original  purity — he  is 
one  with  God.  Man  passes  through  this 
sublunary  life  as  a  sunbeam  passes  through 
a  crack;  here  one  moment,  and  gone  the 
next.  Neither  are  there  any  not  equally 
subject  to  the  ingress  and  egress  of  mor- 
tality. One  modification  brings  life;  then 
comes  another,  and  there  is  death.  Living 
creatures  cry  out;  human  beings  feel  sorrow. 
The  bow-case  is  slipped  off;  the  clothes'- 
bag  is  dropped;  and  in  the  confusion  the  soul 
wings  its  flight,  and  the  body  follows,  on  the 
great  journey  home. 

Attention  has  already  been  drawn  to  this 
necessary  cultivation  of  the  physical  frame, 
and  Chuang  Tzii  gives  an  instance  of  the 
extent  to  which  it  was  carried.  There  was 
a  certain  man  whose  nose  was  covered  with 
a  very  hard  scab,  which  was  at  the  same 
time  no  thicker  than  a  fly's  wing.    He  sent 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         149 

for  a  stonemason  to  chip  it  oflF;  and  the  latter 
plied  his  adze  with  great  dexterity  while  the 
patient  sat  absolutely  rigid,  without  moving 
a  muscle,  and  let  him  chip.  When  the  scab 
was  all  off,  the  nose  was  found  to  be  quite 
uninjured.  Such  skill  was  of  course  soon 
noised  abroad,  and  a  feudal  prince,  who  also 
had  a  scab  on  his  nose,  sent  for  the  mason 
to  take  it  off.  The  mason,  however,  de- 
clined to  try,  alleging  that  success  did  not 
depend  so  much  upon  the  skill  of  the  operator 
as  upon  the  mental  control  of  the  patient  by 
which  the  physical  frame  became  as  it  were 
a  perfectly  inanimate  object. 

Contemporary  with  Chuang  Tzu,  but  of  a 
very  different  school  of  thought,  was  the 
philosopher  Hui  Tzu  (Hooeydza).  He  was 
particularly  fond  of  the  quibbles  which  so 
delighted  the  sophists  or  unsound  reasoners 
of  ancient  Greece.  Chuang  Tzii  admits  that 
he  was  a  man  of  many  ideas,  and  that  his 
works  would  fill  five  carts — this,  it  must  be 
remembered,  because  they  were  written  on 
slips  of  wood  tied  together  by  a  string  run 
through  eyelets.  But  he  adds  that  Hui  Tzu's 
doctrines  are  paradoxical,  and  his  terms 
used  ambiguously.  Hui  Tzu  argued,  for  in- 
stance, that  such  abstractions  as  hardness 
and  whiteness  were  separate  existences,  of 


150    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

which  the  mind  could  only  be  conscious 
separately,  one  at  a  time.  He  declared  that 
there  are  feathers  in  a  new-lai^  egg,  because 
they  ultimately  appear  on  the  chick.  He 
maintained  that  fire  is  not  hot;  it  is  the  man 
who  feels  hot.  That  the  eye  does  not  see;  it 
is  the  man  who  sees.  That  compasses  will 
not  make  a  circle;  it  is  the  man.  That  a 
bay  horse  and  a  dun  cow  are  three;  because 
taken  separately  they  are  two,  and  taken 
together  they  are  one:  two  and  one  make 
three.  That  a  motherless  colt  never  had  a 
mother;  when  it  had  a  mother,  it  was  not 
motherless.  That  if  you  take  a  stick  a  foot 
long  and  every  day  cut  it  in  half,  you  will 
never  come  to  the  end  of  it. 

Of  what  use,  asked  his  great  rival,  is  Hui 
Tzu  to  the  world  .'^  His  efforts  can  only  be 
compared  with  those  of  a  gadfly  or  a  mos- 
quito. He  makes  a  noise  to  drown  an  echo. 
He  is  like  a  man  running  a  race  with  his  own 
shadow. 

When  Chuang  Tzii  was  about  to  die,  his 
disciples  expressed  a  wish  to  give  him  a 
splendid  funeral.  But  Chuang  Tzu  said: 
"With  heaven  and  earth  for  my  coffin  and 
my  shell;  with  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  as 
my  burial  regalia;  and  with  all  creation  to 
escort  me  to  my  grave, — are  not  my  funeral 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         151 

paraphernalia  ready  to  hand?"  "We  fear," 
argued  the  disciples,  "lest  the  carrion  kite 
should  eat  the  body  of  our  Master;"  to 
which  Chuang  Tzii  replied:  "Above  ground 
I  shall  be  food  for  kites;  below  ground  for 
mole-crickets  and  ants.  Why  rob  one  to 
feed  the  other?" 

Life  in  China  is  not  wholly  made  up  of 
book-learning  and  commerce.  The  earliest 
Chinese  records  exhibit  the  people  as  follow- 
ing the  chase  in  the  wake  of  the  great  nobles, 
more  as  a  sport  than  as  the  serious  business 
it  must  have  been  in  still  more  remote  ages; 
and  the  first  emperors  of  the  present  dynasty 
were  also  notable  sportsmen,  who  organized 
periodical  hunting-tours  on  a  scale  of  con- 
siderable magnificence. 

Hawking  was  practised  at  least  so  far  back 
as  a  century  before  Christ;  for  we  have  a 
note  on  a  man  of  that  period  who  "loved  to 
gallop  after  wily  animals  with  horse  and  dog, 
or  follow  up  with  falcon  the  pheasant  and 
the  hare."  The  sport  may  be  seen  in  north- 
ern China  at  the  present  day.  A  hare  is  put 
up,  and  a  couple  of  native  greyhounds  are 
dispatched  after  it;  these  animals,  however, 
would  soon  be  distanced  by  the  hare,  which 
can  run  straight  away  from  them  without 
doubling,  but  for  the  sudden  descent  of  the 


152    THE  CIVILIZATION  OP  CHINA 

falcon,  and  a  blow  from  its  claw,  often 
stunning  the  hare  at  the  first  attempt,  and 
enabling  the  dogs  to  come  up. 

Sportsmen  who  have  to  make  their  living 
by  the  business  frequently  descend  to  meth- 
ods which  are  sometimes  very  ingenious, 
and  more  remunerative  than  the  gun,  but 
can  hardly  be  classified  as  sport.  Thus,  a 
man  in  search  of  wild  duck  will  mark  down 
a  flock  settled  on  some  shallow  sheet  of 
water.  He  will  then  put  a  crate  over  his 
head  and  shoulders,  and  gradually  approach 
the  flock  as  though  the  crate  were  drifting  on 
the  surface.  Once  among  them,  he  puts  out 
a  hand  under  water,  seizes  hold  of  a  duck's 
legs,  and  rapidly  pulls  the  bird  down.  The 
sudden  disappearance  of  a  colleague  does  not 
seem  to  trouble  its  companions,  and  in  a 
short  time  a  very  considerable  bag  has  been 
obtained.  Tradition  says  that  Confucius 
was  fond  of  sport,  but  would  never  let  fly  at 
birds  sitting;  which,  considering  that  his 
weapon  was  a  bow-and-arrow,  must  be  set 
down  as  a  marvel  of  self-restraint. 

Scores  of  Chinese  poets  have  dwelt  upon 
the  joys  of  angling,  and  fishing  is  widely 
carried  on  over  the  inland  waters;  but  the 
rod,  except  as  a  matter  of  pure  sport,  has 
given  place  to  the  businesslike  net.     The 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         153 

account  of  the  use  of  fishing  cormorants  was 
formerly  regarded  as  a  traveller's  tale.  It  is 
quite  true,  however,  that  small  rafts  carry- 
ing several  of  these  birds,  with  a  fisherman 
gently  sculling  at  the  stern,  may  be  seen  on 
the  rivers  of  southern  China.  The  cormo- 
rant seizes  a  passing  fish,  and  the  fisherman 
takes  the  fish  from  its  beak.  The  bird  is 
trained  with  a  ring  round  its  neck,  which 
prevents  it  from  swallowing  the  prey;  while 
for  each  capture  it  is  rewarded  with  a  small 
piece  of  fish.  Well-trained  cormorants  can 
be  trusted  to  fish  without  the  restraint  of 
the  ring.  Confucius,  again,  is  said  to  have 
been  fond  of  fishing,  but  he  would  not  use  a 
net;  and  there  was  another  sage  of  antiquity 
who  would  not  even  use  a  hook,  but  fished 
with  a  straight  piece  of  iron,  apparently 
thinking  that  the  advantage  would  be  an 
unfair  one  as  against  the  resources  of  the 
fish;  and  declaring  openly  that  he  would 
only  take  such  fish  as  wished  to  be  caught. 
By  such  simple  narratives  do  the  Chinese 
strive  to  convey  great  truths  to  childish 
ears. 

Many  sports  were  once  common  in  China 
which  have  long  since  passed  out  of  the 
national  life,  and  exist  only  in  the  record  of 
books.     Among    these    may    be    mentioned 


154    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

"butting/*  a  very  ancient  pastime,  men- 
tioned in  history  two  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era.  The  sport  consisted  in  put- 
ting an  ox-skin,  horns  and  all,  over  the  head, 
and  then  trying  to  knock  one's  adversary  out 
of  time  by  butting  at  him  after  the  fashion  of 
bulls,  the  result  being,  as  the  history  of  a 
thousand  years  later  tells  us,  "smashed  heads, 
broken  arms,  and  blood  running  in  the 
Palace  yard." 

The  art  of  boxing,  which  included  wrest- 
ling, had  been  practised  by  the  Chinese 
several  centuries  before  butting  was  intro- 
duced. Its  most  accomplished  exponents 
were  subsequently  found  among  the  priests 
of  a  Buddhist  monastery,  built  about  a.d. 
500;  and  it  was  undoubtedly  from  their 
successors  in  later  centuries  that  the  Japanese 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  modern  jiu-jitsu^ 
which  is  simply  the  equivalent  of  the  old 
Chinese  term  meaning  "gentle  art.''  A  few 
words  from  a  chapter  on  "boxing"  in  a 
military  work  of  the  sixteenth  century  will 
give  some  idea  of  the  scope  of  the  Chinese 
sport. 

"The  body  must  be  quick  to  move,  the 
hands  quick  to  take  advantage,  and  the  legs 
lightly  planted  but  firm,  so  as  to  advance  or 
retire  with  effect.    In  the  flying  leap  of  the 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         155 

leg  lies  the  skill  of  the  art;  in  turning  the 
adversary  upside  down  lies  its  ferocity;  in 
planting  a  straight  blow  with  the  fist  lies  its 
rapidity;  and  in  deftly  holding  the  adversary 
faee  upwards  lies  its  gentleness." 

Football  was  played  in  China  at  a  very 
early  date;  originally,  with  a  ball  stuffed  full 
of  hair;  from  the  fifth  century  a.d.,  with  an 
inflated  bladder  covered  with  leather.  A 
picture  of  the  goal,  which  is  something  like 
a  triumphal  arch,  has  come  down  to  us,  and 
also  the  technical  names  and  positions  of  the 
players;  even  more  than  seventy  kinds  of 
kicks  are  enumerated,  but  the  actual  rules 
of  the  game  are  not  known.  It  is  recorded 
by  one  writer  that  "the  winners  were  re- 
warded with  flowers,  fruit  and  wine,  and  even 
with  silver  bowls  and  brocades,  while  the 
captain  of  the  losing  team  was  flogged,  and 
suffered  other  indignities."  The  game,  which 
had  disappeared  for  some  centuries,  is  now 
being  revived  in  Chinese  schools  and  colleges 
under  the  control  of  foreigners,  and  finds 
great  favour  with  the  rising  generation. 

Polo  is  first  mentioned  in  Chinese  literature 
under  the  year  a.d.  710,  the  reference  being 
to  a  game  played  before  the  Emperor  and  his 
court.  The  game  was  very  much  in  vogue  for 
a  long  period,  and  even  women  were  taught 


156    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

to  play — on  donkey-back.  The  Kitan  Tar- 
tars were  the  most  skilful  players;  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  game  originated  with  them,  or 
if  it  was  introduced  from  Persia,  with  which 
country  China  had  relations  at  a  very  early 
date.  A  statesman  of  the  tenth  century, 
disgusted  at  the  way  in  which  the  Emperor 
played  polo  to  excess,  presented  a  long 
memorial,  urging  his  Majesty  to  discontinue 
the  practice.  The  reasons  given  for  this 
advice  were  three  in  number.  "(1)  When 
sovereign  and  subject  play  together,  there 
must  be  contention.  If  the  sovereign  wins, 
the  subject  is  ashamed;  if  the  former  loses, 
the  latter  exults.  (2)  To  jump  on  a  horse 
and  swing  a  mallet,  galloping  here  and  there, 
with  no  distinctions  of  rank,  but  only  eager 
to  be  first  and  win,  is  destructive  of  all  cere- 
mony between  sovereign  and  subject.  (3) 
To  make  light  of  the  responsibilities  of  em- 
pire, and  run  even  the  remotest  risk  of  an 
accident,  is  to  disregard  obligations  to  the 
state  and  to  her  Imperial  Majesty  the 
Empress." 

It  has  always  been  recognized  that  the 
chief  duty  of  a  statesman  is  to  advise  his 
master  without  fear  or  favour,  and  to  protest 
loudly  and  openly  against  any  course  which 
is  likely  to  be  disadvantageous  to  the  com- 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         157 

monwealth,  or  to  bring  discredit  on  the  court. 
It  has  also  been  always  understood  that  such 
protests  are  made  entirely  at  the  risk  of  the 
statesman  in  question,  who  must  be  pre- 
pared to  pay  with  his  head  for  counsels  which 
may  be  stigmatized  as  unpatriotic,  though  in 
reality  they  may  be  nothing  more  than  un- 
palatable at  the  moment. 

In  the  year  a.d.  814  the  Emperor,  who 
had  become  a  devout  Buddhist,  made  ar- 
rangements for  receiving  with  extravagant 
honours  a  bone  of  Buddha,  which  had  been 
forwarded  from  India  to  be  preserved  as  a 
relic.  This  was  too  much  for  Han  Yu 
(already  mentioned),  the  leading  statesman 
of  the  day,  who  was  a  man  of  the  people, 
raised  by  his  own  genius,  and  who,  to  make 
things  worse,  had  already  been  banished 
eleven  years  previously  for  presenting  an 
offensive  Memorial  on  the  subject  of  tax- 
collection,  for  which  he  had  been  forgiven 
and  recalled.  He  promptly  sent  in  a  respect- 
ful but  bitter  denunciation  of  Buddha  and  all 
his  works,  and  entreated  his  Majesty  not  to 
stain  the  Confucian  purity  of  thought  by 
tolerating  such  a  degrading  exhibition  as 
that  proposed.  But  for  the  intercession  of 
friends,  the  answer  to  this  bold  memorial 
would  have  been  death;    as  it  was  he  was 


158    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

banished  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  modern 
Swatow,  then  a  wild  and  barbarous  region, 
hardly  incorporated  in  the  Empire.  There 
he  set  himself  to  civilize  the  rude  inhabitants, 
until  soon  recalled  and  once  more  reinstated 
in  office;  and  to  this  day  there  is  a  shrine 
dedicated  to  his  memory,  containing  the 
following  inscription:  "Wherever  he  passed, 
he  purified." 

Another  great  statesman,  who  flourished 
over  two  hundred  years  later,  and  also  several 
times  suffered  banishment,  in  an  inscription 
to  the  honour  and  glory  of  his  predecessor, 
put  down  the  following  words:  "Truth  began 
to  be  obscured  and  literature  to  fade;  super- 
natural religions  sprang  up  on  all  sides,  and 
many  eminent  scholars  failed  to  oppose  their 
advance,  until  Han  Yli,  the  cotton-clothed, 
arose  and  blasted  them  with  his  derisive 
sneer." 

Since  the  fourteenth  century  there  has 
existed  a  definite  organization,  known  as  the 
Censorate,  the  members  of  which,  who  are 
called  the  "ears  and  eyes"  of  the  sovereign, 
make  it  their  business  to  report  adversely 
upon  any  course  adopted  by  the  Government 
in  the  name  of  the  Emperor,  or  by  any  indi- 
vidual statesman,  which  seems  to  call  for  dis- 
approval.   The  reproving  Censor  is  nominally 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SPORT         159 

entitled  to  complete  immunity  from  punish- 
ment; but  in  practice  he  knows  that  he 
cannot  count  too  much  upon  either  justice  or 
mercy.  If  he  concludes  that  his  words  will 
be  unforgivable,  he  hands  in  his  memorial, 
and  draws  public  attention  forthwith  by 
committing  suicide  on  the  spot. 

To  be  allowed  to  commit  suicide,  and  not 
to  suffer  the  indignity  of  a  public  execution, 
is  a  privilege  sometimes  extended  to  a  high 
official  whose  life  has  become  forfeit  under 
circumstances  which  do  not  call  for  special 
degradation.  A  silken  cord  is  forwarded 
from  the  Emperor  to  the  official  in  question, 
who  at  once  puts  an  end  to  his  life,  though  not 
necessarily  by  strangulation.  He  may  take 
poison,  as  is  usually  the  case,  and  this  is 
called  "swallowing  gold."  For  a  long  time 
it  was  believed  that  Chinese  high  officials 
really  did  swallow  gold,  which  in  view  of  its 
non-poisonous  character  gave  rise  to  an  idea 
that  gold-leaf  was  employed,  the  leaf  being 
inhaled  and  so  causing  suffocation.  Some 
simple  folk,  Chinese  as  well  as  foreigners, 
believe  this  now,  although  native  authorities 
have  pointed  out  that  workmen  employed 
in  the  extraction  of  gold  often  steal  pieces 
and  swallow  them,  without  any  serious  con- 
sequences whatever.      Another  explanation. 


160    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

which  has  also  the  advantage  of  being  the 
true  one,  is  that  "swallowing  gold"  is  one 
of  the  roundabout  phrases  in  which  the 
Chinese  delight  to  express  painful  or  repul- 
sive subjects.  No  emperor  ever  "dies,"  he 
becomes  "a  guest  on  high."  No  son  will  say 
that  his  parents  are  "dead;"  but  merely 
that  "they  are  not."  The  death  of  an  official 
is  expressed  by  "he  is  drawing  no  salary;" 
of  an  ordinary  man  it  may  be  said  that  "he 
has  become  an  ancient,"  very  much  in  the 
same  way  that  we  say  "he  has  joined  the 
majority."  A  corpse  in  a  coffin  is  in  its 
"long  home;"  when  buried,  it  is  in  "the 
city  of  old  age,"  or  on  "the  terrace  of  night." 
To  say  grossly,  then,  that  a  man  took  poison 
would  be  an  offence  to  ears  polite. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

RECREATION 

To  return,  after  a  long  digression.  The  age 
of  manly  sport,  as  above  described,  has  long 
passed  away;  and  the  only  hope  is  for  a 
revival  under  the  changing  conditions  of 
modern  China.  Some  few  athletic  exercises 
have  survived;  and  until  recently,  archery, 
in  which  the  Tartars  have  always  excelled, 
was  regarded  almost  as  a  semi-divine  accom- 
plishment. Kite-flying  has  reached  a  high 
level  of  skill.  Clever  little  "messengers" 
have  been  devised,  which  run  up  the  string, 
carrying  fire-crackers  which  explode  at  a 
great  height.  There  is  a  game  of  shuttlecock, 
without  the  battledore,  for  which  the  feet  are 
used  as  a  substitute;  and  "diavolo,"  recently 
introduced  into  Europe,  is  an  ancient  Chinese 
pastime.  A  few  Manchus,  too,  may  be  seen 
skating  during  the  long  northern  winter,  but 
the  modern  inhabitant  of  the  Flowery  Land, 
be  he  Manchu  or  Chinese,  much  prefers  an 
indoor  game  to  anything  else,  especially  when, 

161 


162    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CfflNA 

as  is  universally  the  case,  a  stake  of  money 
is  involved. 

Gambling  is  indeed  a  very  marked  feature 
of  Chinese  life.  A  child  buying  a  cake  will 
often  go  double  or  quits  with  the  stall-keeper, 
to  see  if  he  is  to  have  two  cakes  or  nothing, 
the  question  being  settled  by  a  throw  of  dice 
in  a  bowl.  Of  the  interval  allowed  for  meals, 
a  gang  of  coolies  will  devote  a  portion  to  a 
game  of  cards.  The  cards  used  are  smaller 
than  the  European  pack,  and  of  course 
differently  marked;  they  were  the  invention 
of  a  lady  of  the  Palace  in  the  tenth  century, 
who  substituted  imitation  leaves  of  gilt  paper 
for  real  leaves,  which  had  previously  been 
adopted  for  playing  some  kind  of  game. 
There  are  also  various  games  played  with 
chequers,  some  of  great  antiquity;  and  there 
is  chess,  that  is  to  say,  a  game  so  little  differ- 
ing from  our  chess  as  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to 
the  common  origin  of  both.  In  all  of  these 
the  money  element  comes  in;  and  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  more  homes  are  broken 
up,  and  more  misery  caused  by  this  truly 
national  vice  than  can  be  attributed  to  any 
other  cause. 

For  pleasure  pure  and  simple,  independent 
of  gains  and  losses,  the  theatre  occupies  the 
warmest  place  in  every  Chinaman's  heart. 


RECREATION  163 

If  gambling  is  a  national  vice  in  China,  the 
drama  must  be  set  off  as  the  national  recrea- 
tion. Life  would  be  unthinkable  to  the  vast 
majority  if  its  monotony  were  not  broken 
by  the  periodical  performance  of  stage-plays. 
It  is  from  this  source  that  a  certain  familiarity 
with  the  great  historical  episodes  of  the  past 
may  be  pleasantly  picked  up  over  a  pipe  and 
a  cup  of  tea;  while  the  farce,  occasionally 
perhaps  erring  on  the  side  of  breadth,  affords 
plenty  of  merriment  to  the  laughter-loving 
crowd. 

Ability  to  make  Chinamen  laugh  is  a  great 
asset;  and  a  foreigner  who  carries  this  about 
with  him  will  find  it  stand  him  in  much  better 
stead  than  a  revolver.  When,  many  years 
ago,  a  vessel  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Formosa,  the  crew  and  passengers  were  at 
once  seized,  and  confined  for  some  time  in  a 
building,  where  traces  of  their  inscriptions 
could  be  seen  up  to  quite  a  recent  date.  At 
length,  they  were  all  taken  out  for  execution; 
but  before  the  ghastly  order  was  carried  out, 
one  of  the  number  so  amused  everybody  by 
cutting  capers  and  turning  head  over  heels, 
that  the  presiding  mandarin  said  he  was  a 
funny  fellow,  and  positively  allowed  him  to 
escape. 

With  regard  to  the  farce  itself,  it  is  not  so 


164    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

much  the  actual  wit  of  the  dialogue  which 
carries  away  the  audience  as  the  refined  skill 
of  the  actor,  who  has  to  pass  through  many 
trials  before  he  is  considered  to  be  fit  for  the 
stage.  Beginning  as  quite  a  boy,  in  addition 
to  committing  to  memory  a  large  number  of 
plays — not  merely  his  own  part,  but  the 
whole  play — he  has  to  imdergo  a  severe 
physical  training,  part  of  which  consists  in 
standing  for  an  hour  every  day  with  his 
mouth  wide  open,  to  inhale  the  morning  air. 
He  is  taught  to  sing,  to  walk,  to  strut,  and  to 
perform  a  variety  of  gymnastic  exercises,  such 
as  standing  on  his  head,  or  turning  somer- 
saults. His  first  classification  is  as  male  or 
female  actor,  no  women  having  been  allowed 
to  perform  since  the  days  of  the  Emperor 
Ch'ien  Lung  (a.d.  1736-1796),  whose  mother 
was  an  actress,  just  as  in  Shakespeare's  time 
the  parts  for  women  were  always  taken  by 
young  men  or  boys.  When  once  this  is 
settled,  it  only  remains  to  enrol  him  as  tra- 
gedian, comedian,  low-comedy  actor,  walk- 
ing gentleman  or  lady,  and  similar  parts, 
according  to  his  capabilities. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  women  are 
very  little  missed  on  the  Chinese  stage.  The 
make-up  of  the  actor  is  so  perfect,  and  his 
imitation  of  the  feminine  voice  and  manner. 


RECREATION  165 

down  to  the  smallest  detail,  even  to  the  small 
feet,  is  so  exact  in  every  point,  that  he  would 
be  a  clever  observer  who  could  positively 
detect  impersonation  by  a  man. 

Generally  speaking,  a  Chinese  actor  has 
many  more  difficulties  to  face  than  his  col- 
league in  the  West.  In  addition  to  the  ex- 
pression of  all  shades  of  feeling,  from  mirth 
to  melancholy,  the  former  has  to  keep  up 
a  perpetual  make-believe  in  another  sense, 
which  is  a  further  great  strain  upon  his  nerves. 
There  being  no  scenery,  no  furniture,  and  no 
appointments  of  any  except  the  slenderest 
kind  upon  the  stage,  he  has  to  create  in  the 
minds  of  his  audience  a  belief  that  all  these 
missing  accessories  are  nevertheless  before 
their  eyes.  A  general  comes  upon  the  scene, 
with  a  whip  in  his  hand,  and  a  studied  move- 
ment not  only  suggests  that  he  is  dismounting 
from  a  horse,  but  outlines  the  animal  itself. 
In  the  same  manner,  he  remounts  and  rides 
off  again;  while  some  other  actor  speaks  from 
the  top  of  a  small  table,  which  is  forthwith 
transfigured,  and  becomes  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  a  castle. 

Many  of  those  who  might  be  apt  to  smile  at 
the  simple  Chinese  mind  which  can  tolerate 
such  absurdities  in  the  way  of  make-believe, 
require  to  be  reminded  that  the  stage  in  the 


166    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  was  worked  on  very 
much  the  same  Knes.  Sir  Phihp  Sidney  tells 
us  that  the  scene  of  an  imagined  garden  with 
imagined  flowers  had  to  do  duty  at  one  time 
for  an  imagined  shipwreck,  and  at  another  for 
an  imagined  battlefield,  the  spectator  in  the 
latter  case  being  helped  out  by  two  opposing 
soldiers  armed  with  swords  and  bucklers. 
Even  Shakespeare,  in  the  Prologue  to  his 
play  of  Henry  F,  speaks  of  imagining  one 
man  to  be  an  army  of  a  thousand,  and  says:— 

Think,  when  we  talk  of  horses,  that  you  see  them 
Printing  their  proud  hoofs  i*  the  receiving  earth; 
For  'tis  your  thoughts  that  now  must  deck  our  kings. 

Here,  then,  is  good  authority  for  the  quaint 
system  that  still  prevails  in  China. 

Hundreds  of  Chinese  pilgrims  annually 
wend  their  weary  way  to  the  top  of  Mount 
Omi  in  the  province  of  Ssuch^uan,  and  gaze 
downward  from  a  sheer  and  lofty  precipice  to 
view  a  huge  circular  belt  of  light,  which  is 
called  the  Glory  of  Buddha.  Some  see  it, 
some  do  not;  the  Chinese  say  that  the  whole 
thing  is  a  question  of  faith.  In  a  somewhat 
similar  sense,  the  dramatic  enthusiast  sees 
before  him  such  beings  of  the  mind  as  the 
genuine  actor  is  able  to  call  up.  The  Philis- 
tine cannot  reach  this  pitch;  but  he  is  sharp 


RECREATION  167 

enough  to  see  other  things  which  to  the  eye 
of  the  sympathetic  spectator  are  absolutely 
non-existent.  Some  of  the  latter  will  be 
enumerated  below. 

The  Chinese  stage  has  no  curtain;  and  the 
orchestra  is  on  the  stage  itself,  behind  the 
actors.  There  is  no  prompter  and  no  call-boy. 
Stage  footmen  wait  at  the  sides  to  carry  in 
screens,  small  tables,  and  an  odd  chair  or 
two,  to  represent  houses,  city  walls,  and  so 
on,  or  hand  cups  of  tea  to  the  actors  when 
their  throats  become  dry  from  vociferous  sing- 
ing, which  is  always  in  falsetto.  All  this  in  the 
face  of  the  audience.  Dead  people  get  up  and 
walk  off  the  stage;  or  while  lying  dead,  con- 
trive to  alter  their  facial  expression,  and  then 
get  up  and  carry  themselves  off.  There  is 
no  interval  between  one  play  and  the  next 
following,  which  probably  gave  rise  to  the 
erroneous  belief  that  Chinese  plays  are  long, 
the  fact  being  that  they  are  very  short. 
According  to  the  Penal  Code,  there  may  be 
no  impersonation  of  emperors  and  empresses 
of  past  ages,  but  this  clause  is  now  held  to 
refer  solely  to  the  present  dynasty. 

For  the  man  in  the  street  and  his  children, 
there  are  to  be  seen  everywhere  in  China 
where  a  sufficient  number  of  people  gather 
together,  Punch-and-Judy  shows  of  quite  a 


168    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

high  class  in  point  of  skill  and  general  attrac- 
tiveness. These  shows  are  variously  traced 
back  to  the  eighth  and  second  centuries  B.C., 
and  to  the  seventh  century  a.d.,  even  the 
latest  of  which  periods  would  considerably 
antedate  the  appearance  of  performing  mari- 
onettes in  this  country  or  on  the  Continent. 
Associated  with  the  second  century  B.C.,  the 
story  runs  that  the  Emperor  of  the  day  was 
closely  besieged  by  a  terrible  Hun  chieftain, 
who  was  accompanied  by  his  wife.  It  oc- 
curred to  one  of  his  Majesty's  staff  to  exhibit 
on  the  walls  of  the  town,  in  full  view  of  the 
enemy,  a  number  of  manikins,  dressed  up  to 
a  deceptive  resemblance  to  beautiful  girls. 
The  wife  of  the  Hun  chieftain  then  persuaded 
her  husband  to  draw  off  his  forces,  and  the 
Emperor  escaped. 

By  the  Chinese  marionettes,  little  plays  on 
familiar  subjects  are  performed;  many  are 
of  a  more  serious  turn  than  the  loves  of  Mr. 
Punch,  while  others  again  are  of  the  knock- 
about style  so  dear  to  the  ordinary  boy  and 
girl.  Besides  such  entertainments  as  these, 
the  streets  of  a  Chinese  city  offer  other  shows 
to  those  who  desire  to  be  amused.  An  acro- 
bat, a  rope-dancer  or  a  conjurer  will  take  up 
a  pitch  right  in  the  middle  of  the  roadway, 
and  the  traflSc  has  to  get  on  as  best  it  can. 


RECREATION  169 

A  theatrical  stage  will  sometimes  completely 
block  a  street,  and  even  foot-passengers  will 
have  to  find  their  way  round.  There  is  also 
the  public  story-reader,  who  for  his  own  sake 
will  choose  a  convenient  spot  near  to  some 
busy  thoroughfare;  and  there,  to  an  as- 
sembled crowd,  he  will  read  out,  not  in  the 
difficult  book-language,  but  in  the  colloquial 
dialect  of  the  place,  stories  of  war  and  hero- 
ism, soldiers  led  to  night-attacks  with  wooden 
bits  in  their  mouths  to  prevent  them  from 
talking  in  the  ranks,  the  victory  of  the  loyal 
and  the  rout  and  slaughter  of  the  rebel.  Or 
it  may  be  a  tale  of  giants,  goblins  and  wizards; 
the  bewitching  of  promising  young  men  by 
lovely  maidens  who  turn  out  to  be  really 
foxes  in  disguise,  ending  as  usual  in  the 
triumph  of  virtue  and  the  discomfiture  of 
vice.  The  fixed  eyes  and  open  mouths  of  the 
crowd,  listening  with  rapt  attention,  is  a 
sight  which,  once  seen,  is  not  easily  forgotten. 
For  the  ordinary  man,  China  is  simply 
peopled  with  bogies  and  devils,  the  spirits 
of  the  wicked  or  of  those  unfortunate  enough 
not  to  secure  decent  burial  with  all  its  accom- 
panying worship  and  rites.  These  creatures, 
whose  bodies  cast  no  shadow,  lurk  in  dark 
corners,  ready  to  pounce  on  some  unwary 
passer-by  and  possibly  tear  out  his  heart. 


170     THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Many  a  Confucianist,  sturdy  in  his  faith 
that  "devils  only  exist  for  those  who  believe 
in  them/'  will  hesitate  to  visit  by  night  a 
lonely  spot,  or  even  to  enter  a  disused  tumble- 
down building  by  day.  Some  of  the  stories 
told  are  certainly  well  fitted  to  make  a  deep 
impression  upon  young  and  highly-strung 
nerves.  For  instance,  one  man  who  was  too 
fond  of  the  bottle  placed  some  liquor  along- 
side his  bed,  to  be  drunk  during  the  night. 
On  stretching  out  his  hand  to  reach  the  flask, 
he  was  seized  by  a  demon,  and  dragged  grad- 
ually into  the  earth.  In  response  to  his 
shrieks,  his  relatives  and  neighbours  only 
arrived  in  time  to  see  the  ground  close  over 
his  head,  just  as  though  he  had  fallen  into 
water. 

From  this  story  it  will  be  rightly  gathered 
that  the  Chinese  mostly  sleep  on  the  ground 
floor.  In  Peking,  houses  of  more  than  one 
storey  are  absolutely  barred;  the  reason  be- 
ing that  each  house  is  built  round  a  court- 
yard, which  usually  has  trees  in  it,  and  in 
which  the  ladies  of  the  establishment  delight 
to  sit  and  sew,  and  take  the  air  and  all  the 
exercise  they  can  manage  to  get. 

Another  blood-curdling  story  is  that  of  four 
travellers  who  arrived  by  night  at  an  inn, 
but  could  obtain  no  other  accommodation 


RECREATION  171 

than  a  room  in  which  was  lying  the  corpse  of 
the  landlord's  daughter-in-law.  Three  of  the 
four  were  soon  snoring;  the  fourth,  however, 
remained  awake,  and  very  soon  heard  a  creak- 
ing of  the  trestles  on  which  was  the  dead  body 
dressed  out  in  paper  robes,  ready  for  burial. 
To  his  horror  he  saw  the  girl  get  up,  and  go 
and  breathe  on  his  three  companions;  so  by 
the  time  she  came  to  him  he  had  his  head 
tucked  well  under  the  bedclothes.  After  a 
little  while,  he  kicked  one  of  the  others;  but 
finding  that  his  friend  did  not  move,  he  sud- 
denly grabbed  his  own  trousers  and  made  a 
bolt  for  the  door.  In  a  moment  the  corpse 
was  up  and  after  him,  following  him  down  the 
street,  and  gaining  gradually  on  him,  no  one 
coming  to  the  rescue  in  spite  of  his  loud 
shrieks  as  he  ran.  So  he  slipped  behind  a 
tree,  and  dodged  right  and  left,  the  infuriated 
corpse  also  dodging  right  and  left,  and  making 
violent  efforts  to  get  him.  At  length,  the  girl 
made  a  rush  forward  with  one  arm  on  each 
side,  in  the  hope  of  thus  grabbing  her  victim. 
The  traveller,  however,  fell  backwards  and 
escaped  her  clutch,  while  she  remained 
rigidly  embracing  the  tree.  By  and  by  he 
was  found  senseless  on  the  ground;  and  the 
corpse  was  removed  from  the  tree,  but  with 
great  difficulty,  as  the  fingers  were  buried  in 


172    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  bark  so  deep  that  the  nails  were  not  even 
visible.  The  other  three  travellers  were  found 
dead  in  their  beds. 

Periodical  feasting  may  be  regarded  as 
another  form  of  amusement  by  which  the 
Chinese  seek  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  life. 
They  have  never  reserved  one  day  in  seven 
for  absolute  rest,  though  of  late  years  Chinese 
merchants  connected  with  foreign  trade  have 
to  some  extent  fallen  in  with  the  observance 
of  Sunday.  Quite  a  number  of  days  during 
the  year  are  set  apart  as  public  holidays,  but 
no  one  is  obliged  to  keep  them  as  such,  unless 
he  likes,  with  one  important  exception.  The 
festival  of  the  New  Year  cannot  be  ignored 
by  any  one.  For  about  ten  days  before  this 
date,  and  twenty  days  after  it,  the  public 
offices  are  closed  and  no  business  is  trans- 
acted, the  seal  of  each  official  being  handed 
over  for  safe  keeping  to  the  official's  wife,  a 
fact  which  helps  to  dispose  of  the  libel  that 
women  in  China  are  the  down-trodden  crea- 
tures they  are  often  represented  to  be.  All 
debts  have  to  be  paid  and  accounts  squared 
by  midnight  on  the  last  day  of  the  old  year. 
A  few  nights  previously,  offerings  of  an  ex- 
cessively sticky  sweetmeat  are  made  to  the 
Spirit  of  the  Hearth,  one  of  whose  functions 
is  that  of  an  accusing  angel.    The  Spirit  is 


RECREATION  173 

then  on  the  point  of  starting  for  his  annual 
visit  to  heaven,  and  lest  any  of  the  disclosures 
he  might  make  should  entail  unpleasant  con- 
sequences, it  is  adjudged  best  that  he  shall 
be  rendered  incapable  of  making  any  dis- 
closures at  all.  The  unwary  god  finds  his  lips 
tightly  glued  together,  and  is  unable  to  utter 
a  single  word.  Meanwhile,  fire-crackers  are 
being  everywhere  let  off  on  a  colossal  scale, 
the  object  being  to  frighten  away  the  evil 
spirits  which  have  collected  during  the  past 
twelve  months,  and  to  begin  the  year  afresh. 
The  day  itself  is  devoted  to  calling,  in  one's 
best  clothes,  on  relatives,  friends  and  oflScial 
superiors,  for  all  of  whom  it  is  customary  to 
leave  a  present.  The  relatives  and  friends 
receive  "wet"  gifts,  such  as  fruit  or  cakes; 
officials  also  receive  wet  gifts,  but  under- 
neath the  top  layer  will  be  found  something 
*'dry,"  in  the  shape  of  silver  or  bank-notes. 
Everybody  salutes  everybody  with  the  con- 
ventional saying,  "New  joy,  new  joy;  get 
rich,  get  rich!"  Yet  here  again,  as  in  all 
things  Chinese,  we  find  a  striking  exception 
to  this  good-natured  rule.  No  one  says  "Get 
rich,  get  rich!"   to  the  undertaker. 

A  high  authority  (on  other  matters)  has 
recently  stated  that  the  Chinese  calendar 
*' begins  just  when  the  Emperor  chooses  to 


174    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

say  it  shall.  He  is  like  the  captain  of  a  ship, 
who  says  of  the  hour,  'Make  it  so,'  and  it 
is  so."  The  truth  is  that  New  Year's  Day 
is  determined  by  the  Astronomical  Board, 
according  to  fixed  rules,  just  as  Easter  is  de- 
termined; and  it  may  fall  on  any  day  be- 
tween the  21st  of  January  and  the  20th  of 
February,  but  neither  before  the  former  date 
nor  after  the  latter  date,  in  spite  even  of  the 
most  threatening  orders  from  the  Palace. 
This  book  will  indeed  have  been  written  in 
vain  if  the  reader  lays  it  down  without  having 
realized  that  no  such  wanton  interference  on 
the  part  of  their  rulers  would  be  tolerated 
by  the  Chinese  people.  But  we  are  wandering 
away  from  merry-making  and  festivity. 

In  their  daily  life  the  Chinese  are  extremely 
moderate  eaters  and  mostly  tea-drinkers, 
even  the  wealthy  confining  themselves  to  few 
and  simple  dishes  of  pork,  fowl,  or  fish,  with 
the  ever-present  accompaniment  of  rice.  The 
puppy-dog,  on  which  the  people  are  popularly 
believed  to  live,  as  the  French  on  frogs,  is  a 
stall-fed  animal,  and  has  always  been,  and 
still  is,  an  article  of  food;  but  the  consump- 
tion of  dog-flesh  is  really  very  restricted,  and 
many  thousands  of  Chinamen  have  never 
tasted  dog  in  their  lives.  According  to  the 
popular  classification  of  foods,  those  who  live 


RECREATION  175 

on  vegetables  get  strong,  those  who  Hve  on 
meat  become  brave,  those  who  hve  on  grain 
acquire  wisdom,  and  those  who  live  on  air 
become  divine. 

At  banquets  the  scene  changes,  and  course 
after  course  of  curiously  compounded  and 
highly  spiced  dishes,  cooked  as  only  Chinese 
cooks  know  how,  are  placed  before  the  guests. 
The  wine,  too,  goes  merrily  round;  bumpers 
are  drunk  at  short  intervals,  and  the  wine- 
cups  are  held  upside  down,  to  show  that  there 
are  no  heel-taps.  Forfeits  are  exacted  over 
the  game  of  "guess-fingers,"  for  failure  to  cap 
a  verse,  or  for  any  other  equally  suflficient  (or 
insuflBcient)  reason;  and  the  penalty  is  an 
extra  bumper  for  the  loser. 

This  lively  picture  requires,  perhaps,  a  little 
further  explanation.  Chinese  "wine"  is  an 
ardent  spirit  distilled  from  rice,  and  is  modi- 
fied in  various  ways  so  as  to  produce  certain 
brands,  some  of  which  are  of  quite  moderate 
strength,  and  really  may  be  classed  as  wine. 
It  is  always  drunk  hot,  the  heat  being  sup- 
plied by  vessels  of  boiling  water,  in  which  the 
pewter  wine-flasks  are  kept  standing.  The 
wine-cups  are  small,  and  it  is  possible  to  drink 
a  good  many  of  them  without  feeling  in  the 
least  overcome.  Even  so,  many  diners  now 
refuse  to  touch  wine  at  all,  the  excuse  always 


176    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

being  that  it  flushes  the  face  uncomfortably. 
Perhaps  they  fear  an  undeserved  imputation 
of  drunkenness,  remembering  their  own 
cynical  saying:  "A  bottle-nosed  man  may  be 
a  teetotaller,  but  no  one  will  believe  it."  To 
judge  from  their  histories  and  their  poetry, 
the  Chinese  seem  once  upon  a  time  to  have 
been  a  fairly  tipsy  nation:  now-a-days,  the 
truth  lies  the  other  way.  An  official  who  died 
A.D.  639,  and  was  the  originator  of  epitaphs 
in  China,  wrote  his  own,  as  follows: — 

Fu  I  loved  the  green  hills  and  white  clouds  .  .  . 
Alas!  he  died  of  drink! 

There  are  exceptions,  no  doubt,  as  to  every 
rule  in  every  country;  but  such  sights  as 
drunken  men  tumbling  about  the  streets,  or 
lying  senseless  by  the  roadside,  are  not  to  be 
seen  in  China.  "It  is  not  wine,"  says  the 
proverb,  "which  makes  a  man  drunk;  it  is 
the  man  himself." 

Even  at  banquets,  which  are  often  very 
rich  and  costly,  unnecessary  expense  is  by  no 
means  encouraged.  Dishes  of  fruit,  of  a  kind 
which  no  one  would  wish  to  eat,  and  which 
are  placed  on  the  table  for  show  or  ornament, 
are  simply  clever  imitations  in  painted  wood, 
and  pass  from  banquet  to  banquet  as  part  of 
the  ordinary  paraphernalia  of  a  feast;  no  one 


RECREATION  177 

is  deceived.  The  same  form  of  open  and 
above-board  deception  appears  in  many 
other  ways.  There  are  societies  organized  for 
visiting  in  a  comfortable  style  of  pilgrimage 
some  famous  mountain  of  historic  interest. 
Names  are  put  down,  and  money  is  collected; 
and  then  the  party  starts  off  by  boat  or  in 
sedan-chairs,  as  the  case  may  be.  On  arriv- 
ing at  the  mountain,  there  is  a  grand  feast, 
and  after  the  picnic,  for  such  it  is,  every  one 
goes  home  again.  That  is  the  real  thing;  now 
for  the  imitation.  Names  are  put  down,  and 
money  is  collected,  as  before;  but  the  funds 
are  spent  over  a  feast  at  home,  alongside  of  a 
paper  mountain. 

Another  of  these  deceptions,  which  deceive 
nobody,  is  one  which  might  be  usefully 
adapted  to  life  in  other  countries.  A  China- 
man meeting  in  the  street  a  friend,  and  having 
no  leisure  to  stop  and  talk,  or  perhaps  meeting 
some  one  with  whom  he  may  be  unwilling  to 
talk,  will  promptly  put  up  his  open  fan  to 
screen  his  face,  and  pass  on.  The  suggestion 
is  that,  wishing  to  pass  without  notice,  he 
fails  to  see  the  person  in  question,  and  it 
would  be  a  serious  breach  of  decorum  on  the 
part  of  the  latter  to  ignore  the  hint  thus 
conveyed. 

Japan,  who  may  be  said  to  have  borrowed 


178    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  civilization  of  China,  lock,  stock  and 
barrel — her  literature,  her  moral  code,  her 
arts,  her  sciences,  her  manners  and  customs, 
her  ceremonial,  and  even  her  national  dress 
— ^invented  the  folding  fan,  which  in  the  early 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century  formed  part  of 
the  tribute  sent  from  Korea  to  Peking,  and 
even  later  was  looked  upon  by  the  Chinese 
as  quite  a  curiosity.  In  the  early  ages,  fans 
were  made  of  feathers,  as  still  at  the  present 
day;  but  the  more  modern  fan  of  native 
origin  is  a  light  frame  of  bamboo,  wood  or 
ivory,  round  or  otherwise,  over  which  silk  is 
stretched,  offering  a  convenient  medium  for 
the  inscription  of  poems,  or  for  paintings,  as 
exchanged  between  friend  and  friend. 

The  same  innocent  form  of  deception, 
which  deceives  nobody,  is  carried  out  when 
two  officials,  seated  in  sedan-chairs,  have  to 
pass  one  another.  If  they  are  of  about  equal 
rank,  etiquette  demands  that  they  should 
alight  from  their  chairs,  and  perform  mutual 
salutations.  To  obviate  the  extreme  incon- 
venience of  this  rule,  large  wooden  fans  are 
carried  in  all  processions  of  the  kind,  and 
these  are  hastily  thrust  between  the  passing 
officials,  so  that  neither  becomes  aware  of  the 
other's  existence  on  the  scene.  The  case  is 
different  when  one  of  the  two  is  of  higher 


RECREATION  179 

rank.  The  official  of  inferior  grade  is  bound 
to  stop  and  get  out  of  his  chair  while  his 
superior  passes  by,  though  even  now  he  has 
a  chance  of  escape;  he  hears  the  gong  beaten 
to  clear  the  way  for  the  great  man,  whose 
rank  he  can  tell  from  the  number  of  consecu- 
tive blows  given;  and  hurriedly  turns  down  a 
side  street. 

An  historical  instance  of  substituting  the 
shadow  for  the  reality  is  that  of  the  great 
general  Ts'ao  Ts'ao,  third  century  a.d.,  who 
for  some  breach  of  the  law  sentenced  himself 
to  death,  but  satisfied  his  sense  of  justice  by 
cutting  off  his  hair.  An  emperor  of  the  sixth 
century,  who  was  a  devout  Buddhist,  and 
therefore  unable  to  countenance  any  destruc- 
tion of  life,  had  all  the  sacrificial  animals 
made  of  dough. 

The  opium  question,  which  will  claim  a  few 
words  later  on,  has  been  exhaustively  threshed 
out;  and  in  view  of  the  contradictory  state- 
ments for  and  against  the  habit  of  opium 
smoking,  it  is  recognized  that  any  conclusion, 
satisfactory  to  both  parties,  is  a  very  remote 
possibility.  The  Chinese  themselves,  who  are 
chiefly  interested  in  the  argument,  have  lately 
come  to  a  very  definite  conclusion,  which  is 
that  opium  has  to  go;  and  it  seems  that  in 
spite  of  almost  invincible  obstacles,  the  sin- 


180    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

cerity  and  patriotism  which  are  being  infused 
into  the  movement  will  certainly,  sooner  or 
later,  achieve  the  desired  end.  It  is  perhaps 
worth  noting  that  in  the  Decree  of  1906, 
which  ordered  the  abolition  of  opium  smoking, 
the  old  Empress  Dowager,  who  was  herself 
over  sixty  and  a  moderate  smoker,  inserted  a 
clause  excusing  from  the  operation  of  the  new 
law  all  persons  already  more  than  sixty  years 
of  age. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368 

Lack  of  patriotism  is  often  hurled  by- 
foreigners  as  a  reproach  to  the  Chinese. 
The  charge  cannot  be  substantiated,  any 
more  than  it  could  be  if  directed  against 
some  nation  in  Europe.  If  wiUingness  to 
sacrifice  everything,  including  life  itself,  may 
be  taken  as  a  fair  test  of  genuine  patriotism, 
then  it  will  be  found,  if  historical  records  be 
not  ignored,  that  China  has  furnished  num- 
berless brilliant  examples  of  true  patriots 
who  chose  to  die  rather  than  suffer  dis- 
honour to  themselves  or  to  their  country. 
A  single  instance  must  suffice. 

The  time  is  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, when  the  Mongols  under  Kublai  Khan 
were  steadily  dispossessing  the  once  glorious 
and  powerful  House  of  Sung,  and  placing  the 
empire  of  China  under  alien  rule.  Disaster 
followed  disaster,  until  almost  the  last  army 
of  the  Sungs  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  the  famous 
statesman   and  general   in   command.   Wen 

181 


182    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

(pronounced  One)  T'ien-hsiang,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Mongols.  He  was  ordered,  but 
refused,  to  write  and  advise  capitulation; 
and  every  efiFort  was  subsequently  made  to 
induce  him  to  own  allegiance  to  the  con- 
querors. He  was  kept  in  prison  for  three 
years.  "My  dungeon,"  he  wrote,  "is  lighted 
by  the  will-o'-the-wisp  alone;  no  breath  of 
spring  cheers  the  murky  solitude  in  which  I 
dwell.  Exposed  to  mist  and  dew,  I  had 
many  times  thought  to  die;  and  yet,  through 
the  seasons  of  two  revolving  years,  disease 
hovered  around  me  in  vain.  The  dank,  un- 
healthy soil  to  me  became  Paradise  itself. 
For  there  was  that  within  me  which  misfor- 
tune could  not  steal  away;  and  so  I  remained 
firm,  gazing  at  the  white  clouds  floating  over 
my  head,  and  bearing  in  my  heart  a  sorrow 
boundless  as  the  sky." 

At  length  he  was  summoned  into  the 
presence  of  Kublai  Khan;  who  said  to  him, 
"What  is  it  you  want?"  "By  the  grace  of 
the  Sung  Emperor,"  he  replied,  "I  became 
His  Majesty's  Minister.  I  cannot  serve  two 
masters.  I  only  ask  to  die."  Accordingly, 
he  was  executed,  meeting  his  death  with 
composure,  and  making  an  obeisance  in  the 
direction  of  the  old  capital.  His  last  words 
were,    "My    work   is   finished."      Compare 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  183 

this  with  the  quiet  death-bed  of  another 
statesman,  who  flourished  in  the  previous 
century.  He  had  advised  an  enormous 
cession  of  territory  to  the  Tartars,  and 
had  brought  about  the  execution  of  a  patriot 
soldier,  who  wished  to  recover  it  at  all  costs. 
He  was  loaded  with  honours,  and  on  the 
very  night  he  died  he  was  raised  to  the  rank 
of  Prince.  He  was  even  canonized,  after  the 
usual  custom,  as  Loyalty  Manifested,  on  a 
mistaken  estimate  of  his  career;  but  fifty 
years  later  this  title  was  changed  to  False 
and  Foul  and  his  honours  were  cancelled, 
while  the  people  at  large  took  his  degraded 
name  for  use  as  an  alternative  to  spittoon. 

Two  names  of  quite  recent  patriots  de- 
serve to  be  recorded  here  as  a  tribute  to 
their  earnest  devotion  to  the  real  interests 
of  their  country,  and  incidentally  for  the 
far-reaching  consequences  of  their  heroic 
act,  which  probably  saved  the  lives  of 
many  foreigners  in  various  parts  of  China. 
It  was  during  the  Boxer  troubles  in  Peking, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  siege  of  the  legations, 
that  Yuan  Ch'ang  and  Hsti  Ching-ch*eng, 
two  high  Chinese  officials,  ventured  to  me- 
morialize the  Empress  Dowager  upon  the 
fatal  policy,  and  even  criminality,  of  the 
whole  proceedings,   imploring  her  Majesty 


184    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

at  a  meeting  of  the  Grand  Council  to  recon- 
sider her  intention  of  issuing  orders  for  the 
extermination  of  all  foreigners.  In  spite  of 
their  remonstrances,  a  decree  was  issued  to 
that  effect  and  forwarded  to  the  high  au- 
thorities of  the  various  provinces;  but  it 
failed  to  accomplish  what  had  been  intended, 
for  these  two  heroes,  taking  their  lives  in 
their  hands,  had  altered  the  words  "slay  all 
foreigners"  into  "protect  all  foreigners." 
Some  five  to  six  weeks  later,  when  the  siege 
was  drawing  to  a  close,  the  alteration  was 
discovered;  and  next  day  those  two  men 
were  hurriedly  beheaded,  meeting  death 
with  such  firmness  and  fortitude  as  only 
true  patriotism  could  inspire. 

The  Mongols  found  it  no  easy  task  to 
dispossess  the  House  of  Sung,  which  had 
many  warm  adherents  to  its  cause.  It  was 
in  1206  that  Genghis  Khan  began  to  make 
arrangements  for  a  projected  invasion  of 
China,  and  by  1214  he  was  master  of  all 
the  enemy's  territory  north  of  the  Yellow 
River,  except  Peking.  He  then  made  peace 
with  the  Golden  Tartar  emperor  of  northern 
China;  but  his  suspicions  were  soon  aroused, 
and  hostilities  were  renewed.  In  1227  he 
died,  while  conducting  a  campaign  in  Cen- 
tral Asia;  and  it  remained  for  his  vigorous 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  185 

grandson,  Kublai  Elian,  to  complete  the 
conquest  of  China  more  than  half  a  century 
afterwards.  So  early  as  1260,  Kublai  was 
able  to  proclaim  himself  emperor  at  Xanadu, 
which  means  Imperial  Capital,  and  lay 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  north 
of  modern  Peking,  where,  in  those  days 
known  as  Khan-baligh  (Marco  Polo's  Cam- 
baluc),  he  established  himself  four  years 
later;  but  twenty  years  of  severe  fighting 
had  still  to  pass  away  before  the  empire  was 
finally  subdued.  The  Sung  troops  were 
gradually  driven  south,  contesting  every 
inch  of  ground  with  a  dogged  resistance 
born  of  patriotic  endeavour.  In  1278  Can- 
ton was  taken,  and  the  heroic  Wen  T'ien- 
hsiang  was  captured  through  the  treachery 
of  a  subordinate.  In  1279  the  last  strong- 
hold of  the  Sungs  was  beleaguered  by  land 
and  sea.  Shut  up  in  their  ships  which  they 
formed  into  a  compact  mass  and  fortified 
with  towers  and  breastworks,  the  patriots, 
deprived  of  fresh  water,  harassed  by  attacks 
during  the  day  and  by  fire-ships  at  night, 
maintained  the  unequal  struggle  for  a  month. 
But  when,  after  a  hard  day's  fighting,  the 
Sung  commander  found  himself  left  with 
only  sixteen  vessels,  he  fled  up  a  creek.  His 
retreat  was  cut  off;  and  then  at  length  de- 


186    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

spairing  of  his  country,  he  bade  his  wife  and 
children  throw  themselves  overboard.  He 
himself,  taking  the  young  emperor  on  his 
back,  followed  their  example,  and  thus 
brought  the  great  Sung  dynasty  to  an  end. 

The  grandeur  of  Kublai  Khan's  reign  may 
be  gathered  from  the  pages  of  Marco  Polo, 
in  which,  too,  allusion  is  made  to  Bayan,  the 
skilful  general  to  whom  so  much  of  the  mili- 
tary success  of  the  Mongols  was  due.  Korea, 
Burma  and  Annam  became  dependencies  of 
China,  and  continued  to  send  tribute  as  such 
even  up  to  quite  modern  times.  Hardly  so 
successful  was  Kublai  Khan's  huge  naval 
expedition  against  Japan,  which,  in  point  of 
number  of  ships  and  men,  the  insular  char- 
acter of  the  enemy's  country,  the  chastise- 
ment intended,  and  the  total  loss  of  the  fleet 
in  a  storm,  aided  by  the  stubborn  resistance 
offered  by  the  Japanese  themselves — sug- 
gests a  very  obvious  comparison  with  the 
object  and  fate  of  the  Spanish  Armada. 

Among  the  more  peaceful  developments 
of  Mongol  rule  at  this  epoch  may  be  men- 
tioned the  introduction  of  a  written  char- 
acter for  the  Mongol  language.  It  was  the 
work  of  a  Tibetan  priest,  named  Baschpa, 
and  was  based  upon  the  written  language  of 
a  nation  known  as  the  Quigours  (akin  to  the 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  187 

Turks),  which  had  in  turn  been  based  upon 
Syriac,  and  is  written  in  vertical  Knes  con- 
nected by  ligatures.  Similarly,  until  1599 
there  was  no  written  Manchu  language;  a 
script,  based  upon  the  Mongol,  was  then  de- 
vised, also  in  vertical  lines  or  columns  like 
Chinese,  but  read  from  left  to  right. 

Under  Kublai  Khan  the  calendar  was  re- 
vised, and  the  Imperial  Academy  was  opened; 
the  Yellow  River  was  explored  to  its  source, 
and  bank-notes  were  made  current.  The 
Emperor  himself  was  an  ardent  Buddhist, 
but  he  took  good  care  that  proper  honours 
were  paid  to  Confucius;  on  the  other  hand,  he 
issued  orders  that  all  Taoist  literature  of  the 
baser  kind  was  to  be  destroyed.  Behind  all 
this  there  was  extortionate  taxation,  a  form 
of  oppression  the  Chinese  have  never  learned 
to  tolerate,  and  discontent  led  to  disorder. 
Kublai's  grandson  was  for  a  time  an  honest 
ruler  and  tried  to  stem  the  tide,  but  by  1368 
the  mandate  of  the  Mongols  was  exhausted. 
They  were  an  alien  race,  and  the  Chinese  were 
glad  to  get  rid  of  them. 

Chinese  soldiers  are  often  stigmatized  as 
arrant  cowards,  who  run  away  at  the  slightest 
provocation,  their  first  thought  being  for  the 
safety  of  their  own  skins.  No  doubt  Chinese 
soldiers  do  run  away — sometimes;  at  other 


188    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

times  they  fight  to  the  death,  as  has  been 
amply  proved  over  and  over  again.  It  is  the 
old  story  of  marking  the  hits  and  not  the 
misses.  A  great  deal  depends  upon  suflS- 
ciency  and  regularity  of  pay.  Soldiers  with 
pay  in  arrear,  haH  clad,  hungry,  and  ill 
armed,  as  has  frequently  been  the  case  in 
Chinese  campaigns,  cannot  be  expected  to 
do  much  for  the  flag.  Given  the  reverse 
of  these  conditions,  things  would  be  likely 
to  go  badly  with  the  enemy,  whosoever  he 
might  be. 

Underneath  a  mask  of  complete  facial 
stolidity,  the  Chinese  conceal  one  of  the 
most  excitable  temperaments  to  be  found  in 
any  race,  as  will  soon  be  discovered  by 
watching  an  ordinary  street  row  between  a 
couple  of  men,  or  still  better,  women.  A 
Chinese  crowd  of  men — women  keep  away — 
is  a  good-tempered  and  orderly  mob,  partly 
because  not  inflamed  by  drink,  when  out  to 
enjoy  the  Feast  of  Lanterns,  or  to  watch  the 
twinkling  lamps  float  down  a  river  to  light 
the  wandering  ghosts  of  the  drowned  on  the 
night  of  their  All  Souls'  Day,  sacred  to  the 
memory  of  the  dead;  but  a  rumour,  a  mere 
whisper,  the  more  baseless  often  the  more 
potent,  will  transform  these  law-abiding 
people  into  a  crowd   of  fiends.     In  times 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  189 

when  popular  feeling  runs  high,  as  when 
large  numbers  of  men  were  said  to  be  de- 
prived suddenly  and  mysteriously  of  their 
queues,  or  when  the  word  went  round,  as  it 
has  done  on  more  occasions  than  one,  that 
foreigners  were  kidnapping  children  in  order 
to  use  their  eyes  for  medicine, — ^in  such 
times  the  masses,  incited  by  those  who 
ought  to  know  better,  get  completely  out 
of  hand. 

A  curious  and  tragic  instance  of  this  ex- 
citability occurred  some  years  ago.  The 
viceroy  of  a  province  had  succeeded  in  organ- 
izing a  contingent  of  foreign-drilled  troops, 
under  the  guidance  and  leadership  of  two 
qualified  foreign  instructors.  After  some 
time  had  elapsed,  and  it  was  thought  that 
the  troops  were  suflSciently  trained  to  make 
a  good  show,  it  was  arranged  that  a  sham 
fight  should  be  held  in  the  presence  of  the 
viceroy  himself.  The  men  were  divided  into 
two  bodies  under  the  two  foreign  command- 
ers, and  in  the  course  of  operations  one  body 
had  to  defend  a  village,  while  the  other  had 
to  attack  it.  When  the  time  came  to  cap- 
ture the  village  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet, 
both  sides  lost  their  heads;  there  was  a 
fierce  hand-to-hand  fight  in  stern  reality, 
and  before  this  could  be  effectively  stopped 


190    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

four  men  had  been  killed  outright  and  six- 
teen badly  wounded. 

Considering  how  squalid  many  Chinese 
homes  are,  it  is  all  the  more  astonishing  to 
find  such  deep  attachment  to  them.  There 
exists  in  the  language  a  definite  word  for 
home^  in  its  fullest  English  sense.  As  a 
written  character,  it  is  supposed  to  picture 
the  idea  of  a  family,  the  component  parts 
being  a  "roof"  with  "three  persons"  under- 
neath. There  is,  indeed,  another  and  more 
fanciful  explanation  of  this  character,  namely, 
that  it  is  composed  of  a  "roof"  with  a  "pig" 
underneath,  the  forms  for  "three  men"  and 
"pig"  being  sufficiently  alike  at  any  rate 
to  justify  the  suggestion.  This  analysis 
would  not  be  altogether  out  of  place  in 
China  any  more  than  in  Ireland;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  balance  of  evidence  is  in 
favour  of  the  "three  men,"  which  number,  it 
may  be  remarked,  is  that  which  technically 
constitutes  a  crowd. 

Whatever  may  be  the  literary  view  of  the 
word  "home,"  it  is  quite  certain  that  to  the 
ordinary  Chinaman  there  is  no  place  like  it. 
"One  mile  away  from  home  is  not  so  good  as 
being  in  it,"  says  a  proverb  with  a  punning 
turn  which  cannot  be  brought  out  in  English. 
Another  says,  "Every  day  is  happy  at  home. 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  191 

every  moment  miserable  abroad."  It  may 
therefore  be  profitable  to  look  inside  a 
Chinese  home,  if  only  to  discover  wherein  its 
attractiveness  lies. 

All  such  homes  are  arranged  more  or  less 
on  the  patriarchal  system;  that  is  to  say,  at 
the  head  of  the  establishment  are  a  father 
and  mother,  who  rank  equally  so  far  as  their 
juniors  are  concerned;  the  mother  receiving 
precisely  the  same  share  of  deference  in  life, 
and  of  ancestral  worship  after  death,  as  the 
father.  The  children  grow  up;  wives  are 
sought  for  the  boys,  and  husbands  for  the 
girls,  at  about  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  six- 
teen, respectively.  The  former  bring  their 
wives  into  the  paternal  home;  the  latter 
belong,  from  the  day  of  their  marriage, 
to  the  paternal  homes  of  their  husbands. 
Bachelors  and  old  maids  have  no  place  in 
the  Chinese  scheme  of  life.  Theoretically, 
bride  and  bridegroom  are  not  supposed  to 
see  each  other  until  the  wedding-day,  when 
the  girl's  veil  is  lifted  on  her  arrival  at  her 
father-in-law's  house;  in  practice,  the  young 
people  usually  manage  to  get  at  least  a 
glimpse  of  one  another,  usually  with  the 
connivance  of  their  elders.  Thus  the  family 
expands,  and  one  of  the  greatest  happinesses 
which  can  befall  a  Chinaman  is  to  have  ''five 


192    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

generations  in  the  hall."  Owing  to  early 
marriage,  this  is  not  nearly  so  uncommon 
as  it  is  in  Western  countries.  There  is  an 
authentic  record  of  an  old  statesman  who 
had  so  many  descendants  that  when  they 
came  to  congratulate  him  on  his  birthdays, 
he  was  quite  unable  to  remember  all  their 
names,  and  could  only  bow  as  they  passed  in 
line  before  him. 

As  to  income  and  expenditure,  the  earn- 
ings of  the  various  members  go  into  a  com- 
mon purse,  out  of  which  expenses  are  paid. 
Every  one  has  a  right  to  food  and  shelter; 
and  so  it  is  that  if  some  are  out  of  work,  the 
strain  is  not  individually  felt;  they  take 
their  rations  as  usual.  On  the  death  of  the 
father,  it  is  not  at  all  uncommon  for  the 
mother  to  take  up  the  reins,  though  it  is 
more  usual  for  the  eldest  son  to  take  his 
place.  Sometimes,  after  the  death  of  the 
mother — and  then  it  is  accounted  a  bad  day 
for  the  family  fortunes — ^the  brothers  can- 
not agree;  the  property  is  divided,  and  each 
son  sets  up  for  himself,  a  proceeding  which 
is  forbidden  by  the  Penal  Code  during  the 
parents'  lifetime.  Meanwhile,  any  member 
of  the  family  who  should  disgrace  himself 
in  any  way,  as  by  becoming  an  inveter- 
ate gambler  and  permanently  neglecting  his 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  193 

work,  or  by  developing  the  opium  vice  to 
great  excess,  would  be  formally  cast  out, 
his  name  being  struck  off  the  ancestral 
register.  Men  of  this  stamp  generally  sink 
lower  and  lower,  until  they  swell  the  ranks 
of  professional  beggars,  to  die  perhaps  in  a 
ditch;  but  such  cases  are  happily  of  rare 
occurrence. 

In  the  ordinary  peaceful  family,  regulated 
according  to  Confucian  principles  of  filial 
piety,  fraternal  love,  and  loyalty  to  the 
sovereign,  we  find  love  of  home  exalted  to 
a  passion;  and  bitter  is  the  day  of  leave- 
taking  for  a  long  absence,  as  when  a  suc- 
cessful son  starts  to  take  up  his  oflScial 
appointment  at  a  distant  post.  The  latter, 
not  being  able  to  hold  office  in  his  native 
province,  may  have  a  long  and  sometimes 
dangerous  journey  to  make,  possibly  to  the 
other  end  of  the  empire.  In  any  case, 
years  must  elapse  before  he  can  revisit  "the 
mulberry  and  the  elm" — the  garden  he 
leaves  behind.  He  may  take  his  "old 
woman"  and  family  with  him,  or  they  may 
follow  later  on;  as  another  alternative,  the 
"old  woman"  with  the  children  may  re- 
main permanently  in  the  ancestral  home, 
while  the  husband  carries  on  his  official 
career  alone.     Under  such  circumstances  as 


194    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  last-mentioned,  no  one,  including  his 
own  wife,  is  shocked  if  he  consoles  himself 
with  a  "small  old  woman,"  whom  he  picks 
up  at  his  new  place  of  abode.  The  "small 
old  woman"  is  indeed  often  introduced  into 
families  where  the  "principal  old  woman" 
fails  to  contribute  the  first  of  "the  three 
blessings  of  which  every  one  desires  to  have 
plenty,"  namely,  sons,  money  and  life.  In- 
stances are  not  uncommon  of  the  wife  her- 
self urging  this  course  upon  her  husband; 
and  but  for  this  system  the  family  line 
would  often  come  to  an  end,  having  re- 
course to  another  system,  namely,  adoption, 
which  is  also  brought  into  play  when  all 
hope  of  a  lineal  descendant  is  abandoned. 

WTiether  she  has  children  or  not,  the 
principal  wife — the  only  wife,  in  fact — ^never 
loses  her  supremacy  as  the  head  of  the  house- 
hold. The  late  Empress  Dowager  was  orig- 
inally a  concubine;  by  virtue  of  motherhood 
she  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Western  Em- 
press, but  never  legitimately  took  precedence 
of  the  wife,  whose  superiority  was  indicated 
by  her  title  of  Eastern  Empress,  the  east 
being  more  honourable  than  the  west.  The 
emperor  always  sits  with  his  face  towards 
the  south. 

The  story  of  Sung  Hung,  a  statesman  who 


THE  MONGOLS,   1260-1368  195 

flourished  about  the  time  of  the  Christian 
era,  pleasantly  illustrates  a  chivalrous  side 
of  the  Chinese  character.  This  man  raised 
himself  from  a  humble  station  in  life  to  be 
a  minister  of  state,  and  was  subsequently 
ennobled  as  marquis.  The  emperor  then 
wished  him  to  put  away  his  wife,  who  was  a 
woman  of  the  people,  and  marry  a  princess; 
to  which  he  nobly  replied:  "Sire,  the  partner 
of  my  porridge  days  shall  never  go  down 
from  my  hall." 

Of  the  miseries  of  exile  from  the  ancestral 
home,  lurid  pictures  have  been  drawn  by 
many  poets  and  others.  One  man,  ordered 
from  some  soft  southern  climate  to  a  post 
in  the  colder  north,  will  complain  that  the 
spring  with  its  flowers  is  so  late  in  arriving; 
another  "cannot  stand  the  water  and  earth," 
by  which  is  meant  that  the  climate  does  not 
agree  with  him;  a  third  is  satisfied  with  his 
surroundings,  but  is  still  a  constant  sufferer 
from  home-sickness.  Such  a  one  was  the 
poet  who  wrote  the  following  lines: — 

Away  to  the  east  lie  fair  forests  of  trees. 
From  the  flowers  on  the  west  comes  a  scent-laden  breeze. 
Yet  my  eyes  daily  turn  to  my  far-away  home. 
Beyond  the  broad  river,  its  waves  and  its  foam. 

And  such,  too,  is  the  note  of  innumerable 
songs  in  exile,  written  for  the  most  part  by 


196     THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

officials  stationed  in  distant  parts  of  the 
empire;  sometimes  by  exiles  in  a  harsher 
sense,  namely,  those  persons  who  have  been 
banished  to  the  frontier  for  disaffection, 
maladministration  of  government,  and  like 
offences.  A  bright  particular  gem  in  Chinese 
literature,  referring  to  love  of  home,  was  the 
work  of  a  young  poet  who  received  an  ap- 
pointment as  magistrate,  but  threw  it  up 
after  a  tenure  of  only  eighty-three  days, 
declaring  that  he  could  not  "crook  the 
hinges  of  his  back  for  five  pecks  of  rice  a 
day,"  that  being  the  regulation  pay  of  his 
office.  It  was  written  to  celebrate  his  own 
return,  and  runs  as  follows: — 

"Homewards  I  bend  my  steps.  My  fields, 
my  gardens,  are  choked  with  weeds:  should 
I  not  go.^  My  soul  has  led  a  bondsman's 
life:  why  should  I  remain  to  pine?  But  I 
will  waste  no  grief  upon  the  past:  I  will 
devote  my  energies  to  the  future.  I  have 
not  wandered  far  astray.  I  feel  that  I  am 
on  the  right  track  once  again. 

"Lightly,  lightly,  speeds  my  boat  along, 
my  garments  fluttering  to  the  gentle  breeze. 
I  inquire  my  route  as  I  go.  I  grudge  the 
slowness  of  the  dawning  day.  From  afar 
I  descry  my  old  home,  and  joyfully  press 


THE  MONGOLS,  1260-1368  197 

onwards  in  my  haste.  The  servants  rush 
forth  to  meet  me:  my  children  cluster  at  the 
gate.  The  place  is  a  wilderness;  but  there 
is  the  old  pine-tree  and  my  chrysanthemums. 
I  take  the  little  ones  by  the  hand,  and  pass 
in.  Wine  is  brought  in  full  bottles,  and  I 
pour  out  in  brimming  cups.  I  gaze  out  at 
my  favourite  branches.  I  loll  against  the 
window  in  my  new-found  freedom.  I  look 
at  the  sweet  children  on  my  knee. 
I  "And  now  I  take  my  pleasure  in  my 
garden.  There  is  a  gate,  but  it  is  rarely 
opened.  I  lean  on  my  staff  as  I  wander 
about  or  sit  down  to  rest.  I  raise  my  head 
and  contemplate  the  lovely  scene.  Clouds 
rise,  unwilling,  from  the  bottom  of  the  hills: 
the  weary  bird  seeks  its  nest  again.  Shadows 
vanish,  but  still  I  linger  round  my  lonely 
pine.  Home  once  more!  I'll  have  no  friend- 
ships to  distract  me  hence.  The  times  are 
out  of  joint  for  me;  and  what  have  I  to  seek 
from  men.^  In  the  pure  enjoyment  of  the 
family  circle  I  will  pass  my  days,  cheering 
my  idle  hours  with  lute  and  book.  My 
husbandmen  will  tell  me  when  spring-time 
is  nigh,  and  when  there  will  be  work  in  the 
furrowed  fields.  Thither  I  shall  repair  by 
cart  or  by  boat,  through  the  deep  gorge,  over 
the  dizzy  cliff,  trees  bursting  merrily  into 


198    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

leaf,  the  streamlet  swelling  from  its  tiny 
source.  Glad  is  this  renewal  of  life  in  due 
season:  but  for  me,  I  rejoice  that  my  journey 
is  over.  Ah,  how  short  a  time  it  is  that  we 
are  here!  Why,  then,  not  set  our  hearts  at 
rest,  ceasing  to  trouble  whether  we  remain 
or  go?  What  boots  it  to  wear  out  the  soul 
with  anxious  thoughts?  I  want  not  wealth: 
I  want  not  power:  heaven  is  beyond  my 
hopes.  Then  let  me  stroll  through  the 
bright  hours,  as  they  pass,  in  my  garden 
among  my  flowers;  or  I  will  mount  the  hill 
and  sing  my  song,  or  weave  my  verse  beside 
the  limpid  brook.  Thus  will  I  work  out  my 
allotted  span,  content  with  the  appointments 
of  Fate,  my  spirit  free  from  care.'* 

Besides  contributing  a  large  amount  of 
beautiful  poetry,  this  author  provided  his 
own  funeral  oration,  the  earliest  which  has 
come  down  to  us,  written  just  before  his 
death  in  a.d.  427.  Funeral  orations  are  not 
only  pronounced  by  some  friend  at  the  grave, 
but  are  further  solemnly  consumed  by  fire,  in 
the  behef  that  they  will  thus  reach  the  world 
of  spirits,  and  be  a  joy  and  an  honour  to  the 
deceased,  in  the  same  sense  that  paper  houses, 
horses,  sedan-chairs,  and  similar  articles,  are 
burnt  for  the  use  of  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  X 

MINGS  AND   CH'iNGS,    1260-1368 

The  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
which  witnessed  the  gradual  decline  of  Mon- 
gol influence  and  power,  was  further  marked 
by  the  birth  of  a  humble  individual  destined 
to  achieve  a  new  departure  in  the  history  of 
the  empire.  At  the  age  of  seventeen,  Chu 
Yuan-chang  lost  both  his  parents  and  an 
elder  brother.  It  was  a  year  of  famine,  and 
they  died  from  want  of  food.  He  had  no 
money  to  buy  coffins,  and  was  forced  to  bury 
them  in  straw.  He  then,  as  a  last  resource, 
decided  to  enter  the  Buddhist  priesthood,  and 
accordingly  enrolled  himself  as  a  novice;  but 
together  with  the  other  novices,  he  was  soon 
dismissed,  the  priests  being  unable  to  provide 
even  for  their  own  wants.  After  this  he 
wandered  about,  and  finally  joined  a  party  of 
rebels  commanded  by  one  of  his  own  uncles. 
Rapidly  rising  to  the  highest  military  rank, 
he  gradually  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
huge  army,  and  by  1368  was  master  of  so 

199 


200    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

many  provinces  that  he  proclaimed  himself 
first  emperor  of  the  Great  Ming  dynasty, 
under  the  title  of  Hung  (Hoong)  Wu,  and 
fixed  his  capital  at  Nanking.  In  addition  to 
his  military  genius,  he  showed  almost  equal 
skill  in  the  administration  of  the  empire,  and 
also  became  a  liberal  patron  of  literature  and 
education.  He  organized  the  present  system 
of  examinations,  now  in  a  transition  state; 
restored  the  native  Chinese  style  of  dress  as 
worn  under  the  T'ang  dynasty,  which  is  still 
the  costume  seen  on  the  stage;  published  a 
Penal  Code  of  mitigated  severity;  drew  up  a 
kind  of  Domesday  Book  under  which  taxa- 
tion was  regulated;  and  fixed  the  coinage 
upon  a  proper  basis,  government  notes  and 
copper  cash  being  equally  current.  Eunuchs 
were  prohibited  from  holding  oflScial  posts, 
and  Buddhism  and  Taoism  were  both  made 
state  religions.  I 

This  truly  great  monarch  died  in  1398,  and 
was  succeeded  by  a  grandson,  whose  very 
receding  forehead  had  been  a  source  of  much 
annoyance  to  his  grandfather,  though  the 
boy  grew  up  clever  and  could  make  good 
verses.  The  first  act  of  the  new  emperor  was 
to  dispossess  his  uncles  of  various  important 
posts  held  by  them;  but  this  was  not  toler- 
ated by  one  of  them,  who  had  already  made 


MINGS  AND  CHINGS,   1368-1911    201 

himself  conspicuous  by  his  talents,  and  he 
promptly  threw  off  his  allegiance.  In  the  war 
which  ensued,  victory  attended  his  arms 
throughout,  and  at  length  he  entered  Nan- 
king, the  capital,  in  triumph.  And  now  begins 
one  of  those  romantic  episodes  which  from 
time  to  time  lend  an  unusual  interest  to  the 
dry  bones  of  Chinese  history.  In  the  con- 
fusion which  followed  upon  the  entry  of 
troops  into  his  palace,  the  young  and  de- 
feated Emperor  vanished,  and  was  never  seen 
again;  although  in  after  years  pretenders 
started  up  on  more  than  one  occasion,  and 
obtained  the  support  of  many  in  their  efforts 
to  recover  the  throne.  It  is  supposed  that 
the  fugitive  made  his  way  to  the  distant 
province  of  Yunnan  in  the  garb  of  a  Buddhist 
priest,  left  to  him,  so  the  story  runs,  by  his 
grandfather.  After  nearly  forty  years  of 
wandering,  he  is  said  to  have  gone  to  Peking 
and  to  have  lived  in  seclusion  in  the  palace 
there  until  his  death.  He  was  recognized  by 
a  eunuch  from  a  mole  on  his  left  foot,  but 
the  eunuch  was  afraid  to  reveal  his  identity. 
The  victorious  uncle  mounted  the  throne 
in  the  year  1403,  under  the  now  famous  title 
of  Yung  Lo  (Yoong  Law),  and  soon  showed 
that  he  could  govern  as  well  as  he  could  fight. 
He  brought  immigrants  from  populous  prov- 


20^    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

inces  to  repeople  the  districts  which  had 
been  laid  waste  by  war.  Peking  was  built, 
and  in  1421  the  seat  of  government  was  trans- 
ferred thither,  where  it  has  remained  ever 
since.  A  new  Penal  Code  was  drawn  up. 
Various  military  expeditions  were  despatched 
against  the  Tartars,  and  missions  under  the 
charge  of  eunuchs  were  sent  to  Java,  Sumatra, 
Siam,  and  even  reached  Ceylon  and  the  Red 
Sea.  The  day  of  doubt  in  regard  to  the  gen- 
eral accuracy  of  Chinese  annals  has  gone  by; 
were  it  otherwise,  a  recent  (1911)  discovery  in 
Ceylon  would  tend  to  dispel  suspicion  on  one 
point.  A  tablet  has  just  been  unearthed  at 
Galle,  bearing  an  inscription  in  Arabic, 
Chinese  and  Tamil.  The  Arabic  is  beyond 
decipherment,  but  enough  is  left  of  the 
Chinese  to  show  that  the  tablet  was  erected 
in  1409  to  commemorate  a  visit  by  the  eunuch 
Cheng  Ho,  who  passed  several  times  back- 
wards and  forwards  over  that  route.  In  1411 
the  same  eunuch  was  sent  as  envoy  to  Japan, 
and  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life. 

The  Emperor  was  a  warm  patron  of  litera- 
ture, and  succeeded  in  bringing  about  the 
achievement  of  the  most  gigantic  literary  task 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  He  employed 
a  huge  staff  of  scholars  to  compile  an  encyclo- 
paedia which  should  contain  within  the  com- 


MINGS  AND  CHINGS,   1368-1911    203 

pass  of  a  single  work  all  that  had  ever  been 
written  in  the  four  departments  of  (1)  the 
Confucian  Canon,  (2)  history,  (3)  philosophy, 
and  (4)  general  literature,  including  astron- 
omy, geography,  cosmogony,  medicine,  divi- 
nation. Buddhism,  Taoism,  handicrafts  and 
arts.  The  completed  work,  over  which  a 
small  army  of  scholars — more  than  two 
thousand  in  all — had  spent  five  years,  ran  to 
no  fewer  than  22,877  sections,  to  which  must 
be  added  an  index  occupying  60  sections. 
The  whole  was  bound  up  (Chinese  style)  in 
11,000  volumes,  averaging  over  half-an-inch 
in  thickness,  and  measuring  one  foot  eight 
inches  in  length  by  one  foot  in  breadth.  Thus, 
if  all  these  were  laid  flat  one  upon  another, 
the  column  so  formed  would  rise  consider- 
ably higher  than  the  very  top  of  St.  Paul's. 
Further,  each  section  contains  about  twenty 
leaves,  making  a  total  of  917,480  pages  for  the 
whole  work,  with  a  grand  total  of  366,000,000 
words.  Taking  100  Chinese  words  as  the 
equivalent  of  130  English,  due  to  the  greater 
condensation  of  Chinese  literary  style,  it  will 
be  found  that  even  the  mighty  river  of  the 
Encyclopoedia  Britannica  "shrinks  to  a  rill" 
when  compared  with  this  overwhelming 
specimen  of  Chinese  industry. 

It   was   never   printed;    even   a   Chinese 


204    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

emperor,  and  enthusiastic  patron  of  litera- 
ture to  boot,  recoiled  before  the  enormous 
cost  of  cutting  such  a  work  on  blocks.  It  was 
however  transcribed  for  printing,  and  there 
appear  to  have  been  at  one  time  three  copies 
in  existence.  Two  of  these  perished  at  Nan- 
king with  the  downfall  of  the  dynasty  in  1644, 
and  the  third  was  in  great  part  destroyed  in 
Peking  during  the  siege  of  the  Legations  in 
1900.  Odd  volumes  have  been  preserved, 
and  bear  ample  witness  to  the  extraordinary 
character  of  the  achievement. 

This  emperor  was  an  ardent  Buddhist, 
and  the  priests  of  that  religion  were  raised 
to  high  positions  and  exerted  considerable 
influence  at  court.  In  a  time  of  famine  there 
were  loud  complaints  that  some  ten  thousand 
priests  were  living  comfortably  at  Peking, 
while  the  people  of  several  provinces  were 
reduced  to  eating  bark  and  grass. 

The  porcelain  of  the  Ming  dynasty  is  fa- 
mous all  over  the  world.  Early  in  the  sixteenth 
century  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  art, 
owing  to  the  extravagant  patronage  of  the 
court,  which  was  not  allowed  to  pass  without 
openly  expressed  remonstrance.  The  practice 
of  the  pictorial  art  was  very  widely  extended, 
and  the  list  of  Ming  painters  is  endless,  con- 
taining as  it  does  over  twelve  hundred  names. 


MINGS  AND  CHINGS,   1368-1911    205 

some  few  of  which  stand  for  a  high  level  of 
success. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  Portuguese  appeared  upon  the  scene,  and 
settled  themselves  at  Macao,  the  ownership 
of  which  has  been  a  bone  of  contention  be- 
tween China  and  Portugal  ever  since.  It  is  a 
delightful  spot,  with  an  excellent  climate,  not 
very  far  from  Canton,  and  was  for  some  time 
the  residence  of  the  renowned  poet  Camoens. 
Not  far  from  Macao  lies  the  island  of  Sancian, 
where  St.  Frangois  Xavier  died.  He  was  the 
first  Roman  Catholic  missionary  of  more 
modern  times  to  China,  but  he  never  set  foot 
on  the  mainland.  Native  maps  mark  the 
existence  of  "Saint's  Grave"  upon  the  island, 
though  he  was  actually  buried  at  Goa.  There 
had  previously  been  a  Roman  Catholic  bishop 
in  Peking  so  far  back  as  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, from  which  date  it  seems  likely  that 
Catholic  converts  have  had  a  continuous 
footing  in  the  empire. 

In  1583,  Matteo  Ricci,  the  most  famous  of 
all  missionaries  who  have  ever  reached  China, 
came  upon  the  scene  at  Canton,  and  finally, 
in  1601,  after  years  of  strenuous  effort  suc- 
ceeded in  installing  himself  at  Peking,  with 
the  warm  support  of  the  emperor  himself, 
dying  there  in  1610.    Besides  reforming  the 


206    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

calendar  and  teaching  geography  and  science 
in  general,  he  made  a  fierce  attack  upon 
Buddhism,  at  the  same  time  wisely  leaving 
Confucianism  alone.  He  was  the  first  to  be- 
come aware  of  the  presence  in  China  of  a  Jew- 
ish colony,  which  had  been  founded  in  1163. 
It  was  from  his  writings  that  truer  notions 
of  Chinese  civilization  than  had  hitherto  pre- 
vailed, began  to  spread  in  the  West.  "Mat. 
Riccius  the  Jesuite,"  says  Burton  in  his 
Anatomy  of  Melancholy  (1651),  "and  some 
others,  relate  of  the  industry  of  the  Chinaes 
most  populous  countreys,  not  a  beggar,  or  an 
idle  person  to  be  seen,  and  how  by  that  means 
they  prosper  and  flourish." 

In  1625  an  important  find  was  made.  A 
large  tablet,  with  a  long  inscription  in  Chinese 
and  a  shorter  one  in  Syriac,  was  discovered 
in  central  China.  The  inscription,  in  an  ex- 
cellent state  of  preservation,  showed  that  the 
tablet  had  been  set  up  in  a.d.  781  by  Nesto- 
rian  missionaries,  and  gave  a  general  idea  of 
the  object  and  scope  of  the  Christian  religion. 
The  genuineness  of  this  tablet  was  for  many 
years  in  dispute — Voltaire,  Renan,  and  others 
of  lesser  fame,  regarding  it  as  a  pious  fraud — 
but  has  now  been  established  beyond  any 
possibility  of  doubt;  its  value  indeed  is  so 
great  that  an  attempt  was  made  quite  recently 


MINGS  AND  CH'INGS,   1368-1911    207 

to  carry  it  off  to  America.  Nestorian  Chris- 
tianity is  mentioned  by  Marco  Polo,  but  dis- 
appears altogether  after  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, without  leaving  any  trace  in  Chinese 
literature  of  its  once  flourishing  condition. 

The  last  emperor  of  the  Ming  dynasty 
meant  well,  but  succumbed  to  the  stress  of 
circumstances.  Eunuchs  and  over-taxation 
brought  about  the  stereotyped  consequence 
— rebellion;  rebellion,  too,  headed  by  an 
able  commander,  whose  successive  victories 
soon  enabled  him  to  assume  the  Imperial 
title.  In  the  capital  all  was  confusion.  The 
treasury  was  empty;  the  garrison  were  too 
few  to  man  the  walls;  and  the  ministers  were 
anxious  to  secure  each  his  own  safety.  On 
April  9,  1644,  Peking  fell.  During  the  pre- 
vious night  the  emperor,  who  had  refused  to 
flee,  slew  the  eldest  princess,  commanded  the 
empress  to  commit  suicide,  and  sent  his 
three  sons  into  hiding.  At  dawn  the  bell 
was  struck  for  the  court  to  assemble;  but  no 
one  came.  His  Majesty  then  ascended  the 
Coal  Hill  in  the  palace  grounds,  and  wrote 
a  last  decree  on  the  lapel  of  his  robe:  "We, 
poor  in  virtue  and  of  contemptible  person- 
ality, have  incurred  the  wrath  of  God  on 
high.  My  ministers  have  deceived  me.  I 
am  ashamed  to  meet  my  ancestors;  and  there- 


208    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

fore  I  myself  take  oflp  my  crown,  and  with 
my  hair  covering  my  face  await  dismember- 
ment at  the  hands  of  the  rebels.  Do  not 
hurt  a  single  one  of  my  people."  He  then 
hanged  himself,  as  also  did  one  faithful 
eunuch;  and  his  body,  together  with  that  of 
the  empress,  was  reverently  encoffined  by 
the  rebels. 

So  ended  the  Ming  dynasty,  of  glorious 
memory,  but  not  in  favour  of  the  rebel 
commander,  who  was  driven  out  of  Peking 
by  the  Manchus  and  was  ultimately  slain  by 
local  militia  in  a  distant  province. 

The  subjugation  of  the  empire  by  the 
victors,  who  had  the  disadvantage  of  being 
an  alien  race,  was  effected  with  comparative 
ease  and  rapidity.  It  was  carried  out  by  a 
military  occupation  of  the  country,  which 
has  survived  the  original  necessity,  and  is 
part  of  the  system  of  government  at  the 
present  day.  Garrisons  of  Tartar  troops 
were  stationed  at  various  important  centres 
of  population,  each  under  the  command  of 
an  officer  of  the  highest  military  grade, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  co-operate  with,  and 
at  the  same  time  watch  and  act  as  a  check 
upon,  the  high  authorities  employed  in  the 
civil  administration.  Those  Tartar  garri- 
sons still  occupy  the  same  positions;  and  the 


MINGS  AND  CHINGS,   1368-1911    209 

descendants  of  the  first  battalions,  with  oc- 
casional reinforcements  from  Peking,  live 
side  by  side  and  in  perfect  harmony  with  the 
strictly  Chinese  populations,  though  the 
two  races  do  not  intermarry  except  in  very 
rare  cases.  These  Bannermen,  as  they  are 
called,  in  reference  to  eight  banners  or  corps 
under  which  they  are  marshalled,  may  be 
known  by  their  square  heavy  faces,  which 
contrast  strongly  with  the  sharper  and 
more  astute-looking  physiognomies  of  the 
Chinese.  They  speak  the  dialect  of  Peking, 
now  regarded  as  the  official  or  "mandarin" 
language,  just  as  the  dialect  of  Nanking 
was,  so  long  as  that  city  remained  the 
capital  of  the  empire. 

In  many  respects  the  conquering  Tartars 
have  been  themselves  conquered  by  the 
people  over  whom  they  set  themselves  to 
rule.  They  have  adopted  the  language, 
written  and  colloquial,  of  China;  and  they 
are  fully  as  proud  as  the  purest-blooded 
Chinese  of  the  vast  literature  and  glorious 
traditions  of  those  past  dynasties  of  which 
they  have  made  themselves  joint  heirs. 
Manchu,  the  language  of  the  conquerors,  is 
still  kept  alive  at  Peking.  By  a  fiction,  it  is 
supposed  to  be  the  language  of  the  sovereign; 
but  the  emperors  of  China  have  now  in  their 


210    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

youth  to  make  a  study  of  Manchu,  and  so 
do  the  official  interpreters  and  others  whose 
duty  it  is  to  translate  from  Chinese  into 
Manchu  all  documents  submitted  to  what 
is  called  the  "sacred  glance"  of  His  Majesty. 
In  a  similar  sense,  until  quite  a  recent  date, 
skill  in  archery  was  required  of  every  Ban- 
nerman;  and  it  was  undoubtedly  a  great 
wrench  when  the  once  fatally  effective 
weapon  was  consigned  to  an  unmerited  ob- 
livion. But  though  Bannermen  can  no 
longer  shoot  with  the  bow  and  arrow,  they 
still  continue  to  draw  monthly  allowances 
from  state  funds,  as  an  hereditary  right  ob- 
tained by  conquest. 

Of  the  nine  emperors  of  the  Manchu,  or 
Great  Ch'ing  dynasty,  who  have  already 
occupied  the  dragon  throne  and  have  be- 
come "guests  on  high,"  two  are  deserving  of 
especial  mention  as  fit  to  be  ranked  among 
the  wisest  and  best  rulers  the  world  has  ever 
known.  The  Emperor  K'ang  Hsi  {Khahng 
Shee)  began  his  reign  in  1662  and  continued 
it  for  sixty-one  years,  thus  completing  his 
cycle,  or  term  of  sixty  years,  a  division  of 
time  which  has  been  in  vogue  for  many  cen- 
turies past.  He  treated  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
with  kindness  and  distinction,  and  availed 
himself    in   many   ways   of   their   scientific 


MINGS  AND  CHINGS,   1368-1911   211 

knowledge.  He  was  an  extraordinarily  gen- 
erous and  successful  patron  of  literature. 
His  name  is  inseparably  connected  with  the 
standard  dictionary  of  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage, which  was  produced  under  his  imme- 
diate supervision.  It  contains  over  forty 
thousand  words,  not  a  great  number  as 
compared  with  European  languages  which 
have  coined  innumerable  scientific  terms, 
but  even  so,  far  more  than  are  necessary 
either  for  daily  life  or  for  literary  purposes. 
These  words  are  accompanied  in  each  case 
by  appropriate  quotations  from  the  works 
of  every  age  and  of  every  style,  arranged 
chronologically,  thus  anticipating  to  some 
extent  the  "historical  principles"  in  the 
still  more  wonderful  English  dictionary  by 
Sir  James  Murray  and  others,  now  going 
through  the  press.  But  the  greatest  of  all 
the  literary  achievements  planned  by  this 
emperor  was  a  general  encyclopaedia,  not 
indeed  on  quite  such  a  colossal  scale  as  that 
one  produced  under  the  Ming  dynasty  and 
already  described,  though  still  of  respectable 
dimensions,  running  as  it  does  in  a  small- 
sized  edition  to  1,628  octavo  volume^  of 
about  200  pages  to  each.  The  term  en- 
cyclopaedia must  not  be  understood  in 
precisely  the  same  sense  as  in  Western  coun- 


212    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

tries.  A  Chinese  encyclopaedia  deals  with 
a  given  subject  not  by  providing  an  up-to- 
date  article  written  by  some  living  authority, 
but  by  exhibiting  extracts  from  authors  of 
all  ages,  arranged  chronologically,  in  which 
the  subject  in  question  is  discussed.  The 
range  of  topics,  however,  is  such  that  the 
above  does  not  always  apply — as,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  biographical  section,  which 
consists  merely  of  lives  of  eminent  men 
taken  from  various  sources.  In  the  great 
encyclopaedia  under  consideration,  in  addi- 
tion to  an  enormous  number  of  lives  of  men, 
covering  a  period  of  three  thousand  years, 
there  are  also  lives  of  over  twenty-four  thou- 
sand eminent  women,  or  nearly  as  many 
as  all  the  lives  in  our  own  National  Diction- 
ary of  Biography.  An  original  copy  of  this 
marvellous  production,  which  by  the  way  is 
fully  illustrated,  may  be  seen  at  the  British 
Museum;  a  small-sized  edition,  more  suitable 
for  practical  purposes  and  printed  from  mov- 
able type,  was  issued  about  twenty  years  ago. 
Skipping  an  emperor  under  whose  reign 
was  initiated  that  violent  persecution  of 
Roman  Catholics  which  has  continued  more 
or  less  openly  down  to  the  present  day,  we 
come  to  the  second  of  the  two  monarchs 
before  mentioned,  whose  long  and  beneficent 


MINGS  AND  CHINGS,   1368-1911   213 

reigns   are   among   the   real   glories   of   the 
present  dynasty. 

The  Emperor  Ch'ien  Lung  (Loong)  as- 
cended the  throne  in  1735,  when  twenty-five 
years  of  age;  and  though  less  than  two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  legend  has  been  busy  with  his 
person.  According  to  some  native  accounts, 
his  hands  are  said  to  have  reached  below 
his  knees;  his  ears  touched  his  shoulders; 
and  his  eyes  could  see  round  behind  his 
head.  This  sort  of  stuflF,  it  should  be  under- 
stood, is  not  taken  from  reliable  authorities. 
It  cannot  be  taken  from  the  dynastic  his- 
tory for  the  simple  reason  that  the  oflScial 
history  of  a  dynasty  is  not  published  until  the 
dynasty  has  come  to  an  end.  There  is,  in- 
deed, a  faithful  record  kept  of  all  the  actions 
of  each  reigning  emperor  in  turn;  good  and 
evil  are  set  down  alike,  without  fear  or  fa- 
vour, for  no  emperor  is  ever  allowed  to  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  document  by  which  posterity 
will  judge  him.  Ch'ien  Lung  had  no  cause 
for  anxiety  on  this  score;  whatever  record 
might  leap  to  light,  he  never  could  be  shamed. 
An  able  ruler,  with  an  insatiable  thirst  for 
knowledge,  and  an  indefatigable  adminis- 
trator, he  rivals  his  grandfather's  fame  as  a 
sovereign  and  a  patron  of  letters.  His  one 
amiable  weakness  was  a  fondness  for  poetry; 


214    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

unfortunately,  for  his  own.  His  output  was 
enormous  so  far  as  number  of  pieces  go; 
these  were  always  short,  and  proportion- 
ately trivial.  No  one  ever  better  illustrated 
one  half  of  the  cynical  Chinese  saying:  "We 
love  our  own  compositions,  but  other  men's 
wives.''  He  ^disliked  missionaries,  and  for- 
bade the  propagation  of  the  Christian  religion. 
After  ten  years  of  internal  reorganiza- 
tion, his  reign  became  a  succession  of  wars, 
almost  all  of  which  were  brought  to  a  suc- 
cessful conclusion.  His  generals  led  a  large 
army  into  Nepaul  and  conquered  the  Goork- 
has,  reaching  a  point  only  some  sixty  miles 
distant  from  British  territory.  Burma  was 
forced  to  pay  tribute;  Chinese  suprem- 
acy was  estabhshed  in  Tibet;  Kuldja  and 
Kashgaria  were  added  to  the  empire;  and 
rebellions  in  Formosa  and  elsewhere  were 
suppressed.  In  fifty  years  the  population 
was  nearly  doubled,  and  the  empire  on  the 
whole  enjoyed  peace  and  prosperity.  In 
1750  a  Portuguese  embassy  reached  Peking; 
and  was  followed  by  Lord  Macartney's 
famous  mission  and  a  Dutch  mission  in 
1793.  Two  years  later  the  venerable  em- 
peror had  completed  a  reign  of  sixty  years, 
the  full  Chinese  cycle;  whereupon  he  abdi- 
cated in  favour  of  his  son,  and  died  in  1799. 


CHAPTER  XI 

CHINESE   AND   FOREIGNERS 

A  VIRTUE  which  the  Chinese  possess  in  an 
eminent  degree  is  the  rather  rare  one  of 
gratitude.  A  Chinaman  never  forgets  a 
kind  act;  and  what  is  still  more  important, 
he  never  loses  the  sense  of  obligation  to  his 
benefactor.  Witness  to  this  striking  fact  has 
been  borne  times  without  number  by  Euro- 
pean writers,  and  especially  by  doctors,  who 
have  naturally  enjoyed  the  best  opportuni- 
ties for  conferring  favours  likely  to  make  a 
deep  impression.  It  is  unusual  for  a  native 
to  benefit  by  a  cure  at  the  hands  of  a  foreign 
doctor,  and  then  go  away  and  make  no  eflfort 
to  express  his  gratitude,  either  by  a  sub- 
scription to  a  hospital,  a  present  of  silk  or 
tea,  or  perhaps  an  elaborate  banner  with  a 
golden  inscription,  in  which  his  benefactor's 
skill  is  likened  to  that  of  the  great  Chinese 
doctors  of  antiquity.  With  all  this,  the 
patient  will  still  think  of  the  doctor,  and 
even  speak  of  him,  not  always  irreverently, 

215 


216    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

as  a  foreign  devil.  A  Chinaman  once  ap- 
peared at  a  British  Consulate,  with  a  present 
of  some  kind,  which  he  had  brought  from 
his  home  a  hundred  miles  away,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  command  of  his  dying  father, 
who  had  formerly  been  cured  of  ophthalmia 
by  a  foreign  doctor,  and  who  had  told  him, 
on  his  deathbed,  "never  to  forget  the  Eng- 
lish." Yet  this  present  was  addressed  in 
Chinese:  ''To  His  Excellency  the  Great 
EngHsh  Devil,  Consul  X." 

The  Chinaman  may  love  you,  but  you  are 
a  devil  all  the  same.  It  is  most  natural  that 
he  should  think  so.  For  generation  upon 
generation  China  was  almost  completely 
isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  The 
people  of  her  vast  empire  grew  up  under  in- 
fluences unchanged  by  contact  with  other 
peoples.  Their  ideals  became  stereotyped 
from  want  of  other  ideals  to  compare  with, 
and  possibly  modify,  their  own.  Dignity  of 
deportment  and  impassivity  of  demeanour 
were  especially  cultivated  by  the  ruling 
classes.  Then  the  foreign  devil  burst  upon 
the  scene — a  being  as  antagonistic  to  them- 
selves in  every  way  as  it  is  possible  to  con- 
ceive. We  can  easily  see,  from  pictures,  not 
intended  to  be  caricatures,  what  were  the 
chief  features  of  the  foreigner  as  viewed  by 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      217 

the  Chinaman.  Red  hair  and  blue  eyes, 
almost  without  exception;  short  and  ex- 
tremely tight  clothes;  a  quick  walk  and  a 
mobility  of  body,  involving  ungraceful  posi- 
tions either  sitting  or  standing;  and  with  an 
additional  feature  which  the  artist  could  not 
portray — an  unintelligible  language  resem- 
bling the  twittering  of  birds.  Small  wonder 
that  little  children  are  terrified  at  these 
strange  beings,  and  rush  shrieking  into  their 
cottages  as  the  foreigner  passes  by.  It  is 
perhaps  not  quite  so  easy  to  understand  why 
the  Mongolian  pony  has  such  a  dread  of  the 
foreigner  and  usually  takes  time  to  get  accus- 
tomed to  the  presence  of  a  barbarian;  some 
ponies,  indeed,  will  never  allow  themselves  to 
be  mounted  unless  blindfolded.  Then  there 
are  the  dogs,  who  rush  out  and  bark,  ap- 
parently without  rhyme  or  reason,  at  every 
passing  foreigner.  The  Chinese  have  a  say- 
ing that  one  dog  barks  at  nothing  and  the 
rest  bark  at  him;  but  that  will  hardly  explain 
the  unfailing  attack  so  familiar  to  every  one 
who  has  rambled  through  country  villages. 
The  solution  of  this  puzzle  was  extracted 
with  diflSculty  from  an  amiable  Chinaman 
who  explained  that  what  the  animals,  and 
indeed  his  fellow-countrymen  as  well,  could 
not  help  noticing,  was  the  frowzy  and  very 


218    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

objectionable  smell  of  all  foreigners,  which, 
strangely  enough,  is  the  very  accusation 
which  foreigners  unanimously  bring  against 
the  Chinese  themselves. 

Compare  these  characteristics  with  the 
universal  black  hair  and  black  eyes  of  men 
and  women  throughout  China,  exclusive  of  a 
rare  occasional  albino;  with  the  long,  flowing, 
loose  robes  of  officials  and  of  the  well-to-do; 
with  their  slow  and  stately  walk  and  their 
rigid  formality  of  position,  either  sitting  or 
standing.  To  the  Chinese,  their  own  lan- 
guage seems  to  be  the  language  of  the  gods; 
they  know  they  have  possessed  it  for  several 
thousand  years,  and  they  know  nothing  at 
all  of  the  barbarian.  Where  does  he  come 
from?  Where  can  he  come  from  except 
from  the  small  islands  which  fringe  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  the  world,  in  fact,  bounded 
by  the  Four  Seas?  The  books  tell  us  that 
"Heaven  is  round.  Earth  is  square;"  and  it  is 
impossible  to  believe  that  those  books,  upon 
the  wisdom  of  which  the  Middle  Kingdom  was 
founded,  can  possibly  be  wrong.  Such  was 
a  very  natural  view  for  the  Chinaman  to 
take  when  first  brought  really  face  to  face 
with  the  West;  and  such  is  the  view  that  in 
spite  of  modern  educational  progress  is  still 
very  widely  held.    The  people  of  a  country 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      219 

do  not  unlearn  in  a  day  the  long  lessons  of 
the  past.  He  was  quite  a  friendly  mandarin, 
taking  a  practical  view  of  national  dress, 
who  said  in  conversation:  "I  can't  think 
why  you  foreigners  wear  your  clothes  so 
tight;  it  must  be  very  difficult  to  catch  the 
fleas." 

As  an  offset  against  the  virtue  of  gratitude 
must  be  placed  the  deep-seated  spirit  of 
revenge  which' animates  all  classes.  Though 
not  enumerated  among  their  own  list  of  the 
Seven  Passions — ^joy,  anger,  sorrow,  fear, 
love,  hatred  and  desire — it  is  perhaps  the 
most  over-mastering  passion  to  which  the 
Chinese  mind  is  subject.  It  is  revenge  which 
prompts  the  unhappy  daughter-in-law  to 
throw  herself  down  a  well,  consoled  by  the 
thought  of  the  trouble,  if  not  ruin,  she  is 
bringing  on  her  persecutors.  Revenge,  too, 
leads  a  man  to  commit  suicide  on  the  door- 
step of  some  one  who  has  done  him  an  injury, 
for  he  well  knows  what  it  means  to  be  en- 
tangled in  the  net  which  the  law  throws 
over  any  one  on  whose  premises  a  dead  body 
may  thus  be  found.  There  was  once  an 
absurd  case  of  a  Chinese  woman,  who  de- 
liberately walked  into  a  pond  until  the  water 
reached  up  to  her  knees,  and  remained  there, 
alternately  putting  her  lips  below  the  surface. 


220    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

and  threatening  in  a  loud  voice  to  drown 
herself  on  the  spot,  as  life  had  been  made 
unbearable  by  the  presence  of  foreign  bar- 
barians. In  this  instance,  had  the  suicide 
been  carried  out,  vengeance  would  have  been 
wreaked  in  some  way  on  the  foreigner  by  the 
injured  ghost  of  the  dead  woman. 

The  germ  of  this  spirit  of  revenge,  this 
desire  to  get  on  level  terms  with  an  enemy, 
as  when  a  life  is  exacted  for  a  life,  can  be 
traced,  strangely  enough,  to  the  practice  of 
filial  piety  and  fraternal  love,  the  very  corner- 
stone of  good  government  and  national 
prosperity.  In  the  Book  of  Rites,  which 
forms  a  part  of  the  Confucian  Canon,  and 
contains  rules  not  only  for  the  performance 
of  ceremonies  but  also  for  the  guidance  of 
individual  conduct,  the  following  passage 
occurs:  "With  the  slayer  of  his  father,  a  man 
may  not  live  under  the  same  sky;  against 
the  slayer  of  his  brother,  a  man  must  never 
have  to  go  home  to  fetch  a  weapon;  with  the 
slayer  of  his  friend,  a  man  may  not  live  in 
the  same  state."  Being  now  duly  admitted 
among  the  works  which  constitute  the  Con- 
fucian Canon,  the  above-mentioned  Book  of 
Rites  enjoys  an  authority  to  which  it  can 
hardly  lay  claim  on  the  ground  of  antiquity. 
It  is  a  compilation  made  during  the  first 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      221 

century  B.C.,  and  is  based,  no  doubt,  on  older 
existing  documents;  but  as  it  never  passed 
under  the  editorship  of  either  Confucius  or 
Mencius,  it  would  be  unfair  to  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  either  of  these  two  sages  is 
in  any  way  responsible  for,  or  would  even 
acquiesce  in,  a  system  of  revenge,  the  only 
result  of  which  would  be  an  endless  chain 
of  bloodshed  and  murder.  The  Chinese  are 
certainly  as  constant  in  their  hates  as  in 
their  friendships.  To  use  a  phrase  from 
their  own  language,  if  they  love  a  man,  they 
love  him  to  the  life;  if  they  hate  a  man  they 
hate  him  to  the  death.  As  we  have  already 
noted,  the  Old  Philosopher  urged  men  to 
requite  evil  with  good;  but  Confucius,  who 
was  only  a  mortal  himself,  and  knew  the 
limitations  of  mortality,  substituted  for  an 
ideal  doctrine  the  more  practical  injunction 
to  requite  evil  with  justice.  It  is  to  be  feared 
that  the  Chinese  people  fall  short  in  practice 
even  of  this  lower  standard.  "Be  just  to 
your  enemy"  is  a  common  enough  maxim; 
but  one  for  which  only  a  moderate  applica- 
tion can  be  claimed. 

It  has  often  been  urged  against  the  Chinese 
that  they  have  very  little  idea  of  time.  A 
friendly  Chinaman  will  call,  and  stay  on  so 
persistently  that  he  often  outstays  his  wel- 


%%%    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

come.  This  infliction  is  recognized  and  felt 
by  the  Chinese  themselves,  who  have  certain 
set  forms  of  words  by  which  they  politely 
escape  from  a  tiresome  visitor;  among  their 
vast  stores  of  proverbs  they  have  also  pro- 
vided one  which  is  much  to  the  point:  "Long 
visits  bring  short  compliments/'  Also,  in 
contradiction  of  the  view  that  time  is  of  no 
value  to  the  Chinaman,  there  are  many 
familiar  maxims  which  say,  "Make  every 
inch  of  time  your  own!"  "Half-an-hour  is 
worth  a  thousand  ounces  of  silver,"  etc.  An 
"inch  of  time"  refers  to  the  sundial,  which 
was  known  to  the  Chinese  in  the  earliest  ages, 
and  was  the  only  means  they  had  for  measur- 
ing time  until  the  invention  or  introduc- 
tion— it  is  not  certain  which — of  the  more 
serviceable  clepsydra^  or  water-clock,  already 
mentioned. 

This  consists  of  several  large  jars  of  water, 
with  a  tube  at  the  bottom  of  each,  placed  one 
above  another  on  steps,  so  that  the  tube  of 
an  upper  jar  overhangs  the  top  of  a  lower 
jar.  The  water  from  the  top  jar  is  made  to 
drip  through  its  tube  into  the  second  jar,  and 
so  into  a  vessel  at  the  bottom,  which  contains 
either  the  floating  figure  of  a  man,  or  some 
other  kind  of  index  to  mark  the  rise  of  the 
water  on  a  scale  divided  into  periods  of  two 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      223 

hours  each.  The  day  and  night  were  origin- 
ally divided  by  the  Chinese  into  twelve  such 
periods;  but  now-a-days  watches  and  clocks 
are  in  universal  use,  and  the  European  divi- 
sion into  twenty-four  hours  prevails  every- 
where. Formerly,  too,  sticks  of  incense,  to 
burn  for  a  certain  number  of  hours,  as  well  as 
graduated  candles,  made  with  the  assistance 
of  the  water-clock,  were  in  great  demand; 
these  have  now  quite  disappeared  as  time- 
recorders. 

The  Chinese  year  is  a  lunar  year.  When 
the  moon  has  travelled  twelve  times  round 
the  earth,  the  year  is  completed.  This  makes 
it  about  ten  days  short  of  our  solar  year;  and 
to  bring  things  right  again,  an  extra  month, 
that  is  a  thirteenth  month,  is  inserted  in  every 
three  years.  When  foreigners  first  began  to 
employ  servants  extensively,  the  latter  ob- 
jected to  being  paid  their  wages  according  to 
the  European  system,  for  they  complained 
that  they  were  thus  cheated  out  of  a  month's 
wages  in  every  third  year.  An  elaborate 
ojBBcial  almanack  is  published  annually  in 
Peking,  and  circulated  all  over  the  empire; 
and  in  addition  to  such  information  as  would 
naturally  be  looked  for  in  a  work  of  the  kind, 
the  public  are  informed  what  days  are  lucky, 
and  what  days  are  unlucky,  the  right  and 


224    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

the  wrong  days  for  doing  or  abstaining  froi^ 
doing  this,  that,  or  the  other.  The  anniver- 
saries of  the  death-days  of  the  sovereigns  of 
the  ruHng  dynasty  are  carefully  noted;  for 
on  such  days  all  the  government  offices  are 
supposed  to  be  shut.  Any  foreign  official  who 
wishes  to  see  a  mandarin  for  urgent  business, 
will  find  it  possible  to  do  so,  but  the  visitor 
can  only  be  admitted  through  a  side-door; 
the  large  entrance-gate  cannot  possibly  be 
opened  under  any  circumstances  whatever. 

No  notice  of  the  Chinese  people,  however 
slight  or  however  general  in  character,  could 
very  well  attain  its  object  unless  accompanied 
by  some  more  detailed  account  of  their  eti- 
quette than  is  to  be  gathered  from  the  few 
references  scattered  over  the  preceding  pages. 
Correct  behaviour,  whether  at  court,  in  the 
market-place,  or  in  the  seclusion  of  private 
life,  is  regarded  as  of  such  extreme  importance 
— and  breaches  of  propriety  in  this  sense  are 
always  so  severely  frowned  upon — that  it 
behoves  the  foreigner  who  would  live  com- 
fortably and  at  peace  with  his  Chinese  neigh- 
bours, to  pick  up  at  least  a  casual  knowledge 
of  an  etiquette  which  in  outward  form  is  so 
different  from  his  own,  and  yet  in  spirit  is  so 
identically  the  same.  A  little  judicious  atten- 
tion  to   these   matters   will   prevent   much 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      225 

unnecessary  friction,  leading  often  to  a  row, 
and  sometimes  to  a  catastrophe.  Chinese 
philosophers  have  fully  recognized  in  their 
writings  that  ceremonies  and  salutations  and 
bowings  and  scrapings  and  rules  of  precedence 
and  rules  of  the  road  are  not  of  any  real  value 
when  considered  apart  from  the  conditions 
with  which  they  are  usually  associated;  at  the 
same  time  they  argue  that  without  such  con- 
ventional restraints,  nothing  but  confusion 
would  result.  Consequently,  a  regular  code 
of  etiquette  has  been  produced;  but  as  this 
deals  largely  with  court  and  oflScial  ceremo- 
nial, and  a  great  part  of  the  remainder  has 
long  since  been  quietly  ignored,  it  is  more  to 
the  point  to  turn  to  the  unwritten  code  which 
governs  the  masses  in  their  everyday  life. 

For  the  foreigner  who  would  mix  easily 
with  the  Chinese  people,  it  is  above  all  neces- 
sary to  understand  not  only  that  the  street 
regulations  of  Europe  do  not  apply  in  China; 
but  also  that  he  will  there  find  a  set  of  regula- 
tions which  are  tacitly  agreed  upon  by  the 
natives,  and  which,  if  examined  without  prej- 
udice, can  only  be  regarded  as  based  upon 
common  sense.  An  ordinary  foot-passenger, 
meeting  perhaps  a  coolie  with  two  buckets  of 
w^ater  suspended  one  at  each  end  of  a  bamboo 
pole,  or  carrying  a  bag  of  rice,  weighing  one. 


226    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

two,  or  even  three  hundredweight,  is  bound 
to  move  out  of  the  burden-carrier's  path, 
leaving  to  him  whatever  advantages  the  road 
may  offer.  This  same  cooKe,  meeting  a  sedan- 
chair  borne  by  two  or  more  cooKes  hke  him- 
self, must  at  once  make  a  similar  concession, 
which  is  in  turn  repeated  by  the  chair-bearers 
in  favour  of  any  one  riding  a  horse.  On 
similar  grounds,  an  empty  sedan-chair  must 
give  way  to  one  in  which  there  is  a  passenger; 
and  though  not  exactly  on  such  rational 
grounds,  it  is  understood  that  horse,  chair, 
coolie  and  foot-passenger  all  clear  the  road 
for  a  wedding  or  other  procession,  as  well  as 
for  the  retinue  of  a  mandarin.  A  servant,  too, 
should  stand  at  the  side  of  the  road  to  let  his 
master  pass.  As  an  exception  to  the  general 
rule  of  common  sense  which  is  so  very  notice- 
able in  all  Chinese  institutions,  if  only  one 
takes  the  trouble  to  look  for  it,  it  seems  to  be 
an  understood  thing  that  a  man  may  not  only 
stand  still  wherever  he  pleases  in  a  Chinese 
thoroughfare,  but  may  even  place  his  burden 
or  barrow,  as  the  fancy  seizes  him,  sometimes 
right  in  the  fairway,  from  which  point  he  will 
coolly  look  on  at  the  streams  of  foot-passen- 
gers coming  and  going,  \^ho  have  to  make  the 
best  of  their  way  round  such  obstructions. 
It  is  partly  perhaps  on  this  account  that 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      9Stl 

friends  who  go  for  a  stroll  together  never  walk 
abreast  but  always  in  single  file,  shouting  out 
their  conversation  for  all  the  world  to  hear; 
this,  too,  even  in  the  country,  where  a  more 
convenient  formation  would  often,  but  not 
always,  be  possible.  Shopkeepers  may  oc- 
cupy the  path  with  tables  exposing  their 
wares,  and  itinerant  stall-keepers  do  not 
hesitate  to  appropriate  a  '* pitch"  wherever 
trade  seems  likely  to  be  brisk.  The  famous 
saying  that  to  have  freedom  we  must  have 
order  has  not  entered  deeply  into  Chinese 
calculations.  Freedom  is  indeed  a  marked 
feature  of  Chinese  social  life;  some  small 
sacrifices  in  the  cause  of  order  would  prob- 
ably enhance  rather  than  diminish  the  great 
privileges  now  enjoyed. 

A  few  points  are  of  importance  in  the  social 
etiquette  of  indoor  life,  and  should  not  be 
lightly  ignored  by  the  foreigner,  who,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  be  wise  not  to  attempt  tc 
substitute  altogether  Chinese  forms  and  cere- 
monies for  his  own.  Thus,  no  Chinaman,  and, 
it  may  be  added,  no  European  who  knows 
how  to  behave,  fails  to  rise  from  his  chair  on 
the  entrance  of  a  visitor;  and  it  is  further  the 
duty  of  a  host  to  see  that  his  visitor  is  actually 
seated  before  he  sits  down  himself.  It  is 
extremely  impolite  to  precede  a  visitor,  as  in 


228    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

passing  through  a  door;  and  on  parting,  it  is 
usual  to  escort  him  to  the  front  entrance. 
He  must  be  placed  on  the  left  of  the  host, 
this  having  been  the  post  of  honour  for  several 
centuries,  previous  to  which  it  was  the  seat 
to  the  right  of  the  host,  as  with  us,  to  which 
the  visitor  was  assigned.  At  such  interviews 
it  would  not  be  correct  to  allude  to  wives, 
who  are  no  more  to  be  mentioned  than  were 
the  queen  of  Spain's  legs. 

One  singular  custom  in  connection  with 
visits,  official  and  otherwise,  ignorance  of 
which  has  led  on  many  occasions  to  an  awk- 
ward moment,  is  the  service  of  what  is  called 
"guest-tea."  At  his  reception  by  the  host 
every  visitor  is  at  once  supplied  with  a  cup 
of  tea.  The  servant  brings  two  cups,  one  in 
each  hand,  and  so  manages  that  the  cup  in 
his  left  hand  is  set  down  before  the  guest,  who 
faces  him  on  his  right  hand,  while  that  for  his 
master  is  carried  across  and  set  down  in  an 
exactly  opposite  sense.  The  tea-cups  are 
so  handed,  as  it  were  with  crossed  hands^ 
even  when  the  host,  as  an  extra  mark  of 
politeness,  receives  that  intended  for  his 
visitor,  and  himself  places  it  on  the  table, 
in  this  case  being  careful  to  use  both  hands, 
it  being  considered  extremely  impolite  to 
offer  anything  with  one  hand  only  employed. 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      229 

Now  comes  the  point  of  the  "guest-tea," 
which,  as  will  be  seen,  it  is  quite  worth  while 
to  remember.  Shortly  after  the  beginning  of 
the  interview,  an  unwary  foreigner,  as  indeed 
has  often  been  the  case,  perhaps  because  he 
is  thirsty,  or  because  he  may  think  it  polite 
to  take  a  sip  of  the  fragrant  drink  which  has 
been  so  kindly  provided  for  him,  will  raise 
the  cup  to  his  lips.  Almost  instantaneously 
he  will  hear  a  loud  shout  outside,  and  become 
aware  that  the  scene  is  changing  rapidly  for 
no  very  evident  reason — only  too  evident, 
however,  to  the  surrounding  Chinese  ser- 
vants, who  know  it  to  be  their  own  custom 
that  so  soon  as  a  visitor  tastes  his  "guest-tea," 
it  is  a  signal  that  he  wishes  to  leave,  and  that 
the  interview  is  at  an  end.  The  noise  is 
simply  a  bawling  summons  to  get  ready  his 
sedan-chair,  and  the  scurrying  of  his  coolies 
to  be  in  their  places  when  wanted.  There  is 
another  side  to  this  quaint  custom,  which  is 
often  of  inestimable  advantage  to  a  busy  man. 
A  host,  who  feels  that  everything  necessary 
has  been  said,  and  wishes  to  free  himself  from 
further  attendance,  may  grasp  his  own  cup 
and  invite  his  guest  to  drink.  The  same  re- 
sults follow,  and  the  guest  has  no  alternative 
but  to  rise  and  take  his  leave.  In  ancient  days 
visitors  left  their  shoes  outside  the  front  door. 


230    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

a  custom  which  is  still  practised  by  the  Jap- 
anese, the  whole  of  whose  civilization — this 
cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized — was 
borrowed  originally  from  China. 

It  is  considered  polite  to  remove  spectacles 
during  an  interview,  or  even  when  meeting 
in  the  street;  though  as  this  rather  un- 
reasonable rule  has  been  steadily  ignored  by 
foreigners,  chiefly,  no  doubt,  from  unac- 
quaintance  with  it,  the  Chinese  themselves 
make  no  attempt  to  observe  it  so  far  as 
foreigners  are  concerned.  In  like  manner, 
it  is  most  unbecoming  for  any  "read-book 
man,"  no  matter  how  miserably  poor  he 
may  be,  to  receive  a  stranger,  or  be  seen 
himself  abroad,  in  short  clothes;  but  this 
rule,  too,  is  often  relaxed  in  the  presence  of 
foreigners,  who  wear  short  clothes  them- 
selves. Honest  poverty  is  no  crime  in  China, 
nor  is  it  in  any  way  regarded  as  cause  for 
shame;  it  is  even  more  amply  redeemed  by 
scholarship  than  is  the  case  in  Western 
countries.  A  man  who  has  gained  a  degree 
moves  on  a  different  level  from  the  crowd 
around  him,  so  profound  is  the  respect  shown 
to  learning.  If  a  foreigner  can  speak  Chinese 
intelligibly,  his  character  as  a  barbarian  be- 
gins to  be  perceptibly  modified;  and  if  to  the 
knack  of  speech  he  adds  a  tolerable  acquaint- 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      231 

ance  with  the  sacred  characters  which  form 
the  written  language,  he  becomes  transfig- 
ured, as  one  in  whom  the  influence  of  the 
holy  men  of  old  is  beginning  to  prevail 
over  savagery  and  ignorance. 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  the  term 
"sacred"  is  applied  above  to  the  written 
words  or  characters.  The  Chinese,  recogniz- 
ing the  extraordinary  results  which  have  been 
brought  about,  silently  and  invisibly,  by  the 
operation  of  written  symbols,  have  gradually 
come  to  invest  these  symbols  with  a  spirit- 
uality arousing  a  feeling  somewhat  akin  to 
worship.  A  piece  of  paper  on  which  a  single 
word  has  once  been  written  or  printed,  be- 
comes something  other  than  paper  with  a 
black  mark  on  it.  It  may  not  be  lightly  tossed 
about,  still  less  trampled  underfoot;  it  should 
be  reverently  destroyed  by  fire,  here  again 
used  as  a  medium  of  transmission  to  the  great 
Beyond;  and  thus  its  spiritual  essence  will 
return  to  those  from  whom  it  originally  came. 
In  the  streets  of  a  Chinese  city,  and  occasion- 
ally along  a  frequented  highroad,  may  be 
seen  small  ornamental  structures  into  which 
odd  bits  of  paper  may  be  thrown  and  burnt, 
thus  preventing  a  desecration  so  painful  to 
the  Chinese  mind;  and  it  has  often  been 
urged  against  foreigners  that  because  they 


232    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

are  so  careldss  as  to  what  becomes  of  their 
written  and  printed  paper,  the  matter  con- 
tained in  foreign  documents  and  books  must 
obviously  be  of  no  great  value.  It  is  even  con- 
sidered criminal  to  use  printed  matter  for  stiff- 
ening the  covers  or  strengthening  the  folded 
leaves  of  books;  still  more  so,  to  employ  it  in 
the  manufacture  of  soles  for  boots  and  shoes, 
though  in  such  cases  as  these  the  weakness  of 
human  nature  usually  carries  the  day.  Still, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Taoist  faith,  the 
risk  is  too  serious  to  be  overlooked.  In  the 
sixth  of  the  ten  Courts  of  Purgatory,  through 
one  or  more  of  which  sinners  must  pass  after 
death  in  order  to  expiate  their  crimes  on  earth, 
provision  is  made  for  those  who  "scrape  the 
gilding  from  the  outside  of  images,  take  holy 
names  in  vain,  show  no  respect  for  written 
paper,  throw  down  dirt  and  rubbish  near 
pagodas  and  temples,  have  in  their  possession 
blasphemous  or  obscene  books  and  do  not 
destroy  them,  obliterate  or  tear  books  which 
teach  man  to  be  good,"  etc.,  etc. 

In  this,  the  sixth  Court,  presided  over,  like 
all  the  others,  by  a  judge,  and  furnished  with 
all  the  necessary  means  and  appliances  for 
carrying  out  the  sentences,  there  are  sixteen 
different  wards  where  different  punishments 
are  applied  according  to  the  gravity  of  the 


CHINESE  AND  FOREIGNERS      233 

offence.  The  wicked  shade  may  be  sentenced 
to  kneel  for  long  periods  on  iron  shot,  or  to  be 
placed  up  to  the  neck  in  filth,  or  pounded  till 
the  blood  runs  out,  or  to  have  the  mouth 
forced  open  with  iron  pincers  and  filled  with 
needles,  or  to  be  bitten  by  rats,  or  nipped  by 
locusts  while  in'  a  net  of  thorns,  or  have  the 
heart  scratched,  or  be  chopped  in  two  at  the 
waist,  or  have  the  skin  of  the  body  torn  off  and 
rolled  up  into  spills  for  lighting  pipes,  etc. 
Similar  punishments  are  awarded  for  other 
crimes;  and  these  are  to  be  seen  depicted  on 
the  walls  of  the  municipal  temple,  to  be  found 
in  every  large  city,  and  appropriately  named 
the  Chamber  of  Horrors.  It  is  doubtful  if 
such  ghastly  representations  of  what  is  to  be 
expected  in  the  next  world  have  really  any 
deterrent  effect  upon  even  the  most  illiterate 
of  the  masses;  certainly  not  so  long  as  health 
is  present  and  things  generally  are  going  well. 
**  The  devil  a  monk  "will  any  Chinaman  be  when 
the  conditions  of  life  are  satisfactory  to  him. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  his  tempera- 
ment is  not  a  religious  one;  and  even  the  se- 
ductions and  threats  of  Buddhism  leave  him 
to  a  great  extent  unmoved.  He  is  perhaps 
chiefly  influenced  by  the  Buddhist  menace  of 
rebirth,  possibly  as  a  woman,  or  worse  still 
as  an  animal.    Belief  in  such  a  contingency 


234    THE  CIVILIZATION  OP  CHINA 

may  act  as  a  mild  deterrent  under  a  variety 
of  circumstances;  it  certainly  tends  to  soften 
his  treatment  of  domestic  animals.  Not  only 
because  he  may  some  day  become  one  him- 
self, but  also  because  among  the  mules  or 
donkeys  which  he  has  to  coerce  through  long 
spells  of  exhausting  toil,  he  may  unwittingly 
be  belabouring  some  friend  or  acquaintance, 
or  even  a  member  of  his  own  particular 
family.  This  belief  in  rebirth  is  greatly 
strengthened  by  a  large  number  of  recorded 
instances  of  persons  who  could  recall  events 
which  had  happened  in  their  own  previous 
state  of  existence,  and  whose  statements 
were  capable  of  verification.  Occasionally, 
people  would  accurately  describe  places  and 
buildings  which  they  could  not  have  visited, 
while  many  would  entertain  a  dim  conscious- 
ness of  scenes,  sights  and  sounds,  which 
seemed  to  belong  to  some  other  than  the 
present  life.  There  is  a  record  of  one  man 
who  could  remember  having  been  a  horse, 
and  who  vividly  recalled  the  pain  he  had 
suffered  when  riders  dug  their  knees  hard  into 
his  sides.  This,  too,  in  spite  of  the  adminis- 
tration in  Purgatory  of  a  cup  of  forgetfulness, 
specially  designed  to  prevent  in  those  about 
to  be  reborn  any  remembrance  of  life  during  a 
previous  birth. 


CHINESE  AND   FOREIGNERS      235 

After  all,  the  most  awful  punishment  in- 
flicted in  Purgatory  upon  sinners  is  one 
which,  being  purely  mental,  may  not  appeal 
so  powerfully  to  the  masses  as  the  coarse 
tortures  mentioned  above.  In  the  fifth 
Court,  the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  taken  to  a 
terrace  from  which  they  can  hear  and  see 
what  goes  on  in  their  old  homes  after  their 
own  deaths.  "They  see  their  last  wishes 
disregarded,  and  their  instructions  disobeyed. 
The  property  they  scraped  together  with  so 
much  trouble  is  dissipated  and  gone.  The 
husband  thinks  of  taking  another  wife;  the 
widow  meditates  second  nuptials.  Strangers 
are  in  possession  of  the  old  estate;  there  is 
nothing  to  divide  amongst  the  children. 
Debts  long  since  paid  are  brought  again  for 
settlement,  and  the  survivors  are  called  upon 
to  acknowledge  false  claims  upon  the  de- 
parted. Debts  owed  are  lost  for  want  of 
evidence,  with  endless  recriminations,  abuse, 
and  general  confusion,  all  of  which  falls  upon 
the  three  families — father's,  mother's  and 
wife's — connected  with  the  deceased.  These 
in  their  anger  speak  ill  of  him  that  is  gone. 
He  sees  his  children  become  corrupt,  and 
friends  fall  away.  Some,  perhaps,  may  stroke 
the  coffin  and  let  fall  a  tear,  departing  quickly 
with  a  cold  smile.    Worse  than  that,  the  wife 


^36     THE  CIVILIZATION  OP  CHINA 

sees  her  husband  tortured  in  gaol;  the  hus- 
band sees  his  wife  a  victim  to  some  horrible 
disease,  lands  gone,  houses  destroyed  by  flood 
or  fire,  and  everything  in  an  unutterable 
plight — the  reward  of  former  sins." 

Confucius  declined  absolutely  to  discuss  the 
supernatural  in  any  form  or  shape,  his  one 
object  being  to  improve  human  conduct  in 
this  life,  without  attempting  to  probe  that 
state  from  which  man  is  divided  by  death. 
At  the  same  time,  he  was  no  scoffer;  for 
although  he  declared  that  "the  study  of  the 
supernatural  is  injurious  indeed,"  and  some- 
what cynically  bade  his  followers  "show 
respect  to  spiritual  beings,  but  keep  them  at 
a  distance,"  yet  in  another  passage  we  read: 
"He  who  offends  against  God  has  no  one 
to  whom  hei  can  pray."  Again,  when  he  was 
seriously  ill,  a  disciple  asked  if  he  might 
offer  up  prayer.  Confucius  demurred  to 
this,  pointing  out  that  he  himself  had  been 
praying  for  a  considerable  period;  meaning 
thereby  that  his  life  had  been  one  long 
prayer. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   OUTLOOK 

There  is  a  very  common  statement  made 
by  persons  who  have  Hved  in  China — among 
the  people,  but  not  of  them — and  the  more 
superficial  the  acquaintance,  the  more  em- 
phatically is  the  statement  made,  that  the 
ordinary  Chinaman,  be  he  prince  or  peasant, 
offers  to  the  Western  observer  an  insoluble 
puzzle  in  every  department  of  his  life.  He  is, 
in  fact,  a  standing  enigma;  a  human  being, 
it  may  be  granted,  but  one  who  can  no  more 
be  classed  than  his  unique  monosyllabic  lan- 
guage, which  still  stands  isolated  and  alone. 

This  estimate  is  largely  based  upon  some 
exceedingly  false  inferences.  It  seems  to  be 
argued  that  because,  in  a  great  many  matters, 
the  Chinaman  takes  a  diametrically  opposite 
view  to  our  own,  he  must  necessarily  be  a  very 
eccentric  fellow;  but  as  these  are  mostly 
matters  of  convention,  the  argument  is  just 
as  valid  against  us  as  against  him.  "Strange 
people,  those  foreigners,"  he  may  say,  and 
actually  does  say;  *'they  make  their  compass 

237 


9SS    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

point  north  instead  of  south.  They  take  off 
their  hats  in  company  instead  of  keeping 
them  on.  They  mount  a  horse  on  its  left 
instead  of  on  its  right  side.  They  begin 
dinner  with  soup  instead  of  with  dessert,  and 
end  it  with  dessert  instead  of  with  soup.  They 
drink  their  wine  cold  instead  of  hot.  Their 
books  all  open  at  the  wrong  end,  and  the  lines 
in  a  page  are  horizontal  instead  of  vertical. 
They  put  their  guests  on  the  right  instead  of 
on  the  left,  though  it  is  true  that  we  did  that 
until  several  hundred  years  ago.  Their  music, 
too,  is  so  funny,  it  is  more  like  noise;  and  as 
for  their  singing,  it  is  only  very  loud  talking. 
Then  their  women  are  so  immodest;  striding 
about  in  ball-rooms  with  very  little  on,  and 
embracing  strange  men  in  a  whirligig  which 
they  call  dancing,  but  very  unlike  the  digni- 
fied movements  which  our  male  dancers  ex- 
hibit in  the  Confucian  temple.  Their  men 
and  women  shake  hands,  though  we  know 
from  our  sacred  Book  of  Rites  that  men  and 
women  should  not  even  pass  things  from  one 
to  another,  for  fear  their  hands  should  touch. 
Then,  again,  all  foreigners,  sometimes  the 
women  also,  carry  sticks,  which  can  only  be 
for  beating  innocent  people;  and  their  so- 
called  mandarins  and  others  ride  races  and 
row  boats,  instead  of  having  coolies  to  do 
these  things  for  them.     They  are  strange 


THE  OUTLOOK  239 

people  indeed;  very  clever  at  cunning,  me- 
chanical devices,  such  as  fire-ships,  fire-car- 
riages, and  air-cars;  but  extremely  ferocious 
and  almost  entirely  uncivilized." 

Such  would  be  a  not  exaggerated  picture  of 
the  mental  attitude  of  the  Chinaman  towards 
his  enigma,  the  foreigner.  From  the  China- 
man's imperturbable  countenance  the  for- 
eigner seeks  in  vain  for  some  indications  of 
a  common  humanity  within ;  and  simply  be- 
cause he  has  not  the  wit  to  see  it,  argues  that 
it  is  not  there.  But  there  it  is  all  the  time. 
The  principles  of  general  morality,  and  espe- 
cially of  duty  towards  one's  neighbour,  the 
restrictions  of  law,  and  even  the  conven- 
tionalities of  social  life,  upon  all  of  which 
the  Chinaman  is  more  or  less  nourished  from 
his  youth  upwards,  remain,  when  accidental 
differences  have  been  brushed  away,  upon  a 
bed-rock  of  ground  common  to  both  East  and 
West;  and  it  is  diflScult  to  see  how  such 
teachings  could  possibly  turn  out  a  race  of 
men  so  utterly  in  contrast  with  the  foreigner 
as  the  Chinese  are  usually  supposed  to  be. 
It  is  certain  that  anything  like  a  full  and 
sincere  observance  of  the  Chinese  rules  of  life 
would  result  in  a  community  of  human  beings 
far  ahead  of  the  "pure  men"  dreamt  of  in  the 
philosophy  of  the  Taoists. 

As  has  already  been  either  stated  or  sug- 


240    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

gested,  the  Chinese  seem  to  be  actuated  by 
precisely   the  same  motives  which  actuate 
other  peoples.    They  delight  in  the  possession 
of  wealth  and  fame,  while  fully  alive  to  the 
transitory  nature  of  both.     They  long  even 
more  for  posterity,  that  the  ancestral  line  may 
be  carried  on  unbroken.    They  find  their  chief 
pleasures  in  family  life,  and  in  the  society  of 
friends,  of  books,  of  mountains,  of  flowers,  of 
pictures,  and  of  objects  dear  to  the  collector 
and  the  connoisseur.     Though  a  nation  of 
what  the  Scotch  would  call  ''sober  eaters,'* 
they  love  the  banquet  hour,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  verify  their  own  saying  that  "Man's 
heart   is   next   door   to   his   stomach."     In 
centuries  past  a  drunken  nation,  some  two 
to  three  hundred  years  ago  they  began  to 
come  under  the  influence  of  opium,  and  the 
abuse   of   alcohol   dropped   to   a   minimum. 
Opium  smoking,  less  harmful  a  great  deal 
than  opium  eating,  took  the  place  of  drink, 
and  became  the  national  vice;  but  the  extent 
of  its  injury  to  the  people  has  been  much 
exaggerated,  and  is  not  to  be  compared  with 
that  of  alcohol  in  the  West.    It  is  now,  in  con- 
sequence of  recent  legislation,  likely  to  dis- 
appear, on  which  result  there  could  be  nothing 
but  the  warmest  congratulations  to  offer,  but 
for  the  fact  that  something  else,  more  insidi- 
ous and  more  deadly  still,  is  rapidly  taking  its 


THE  OUTLOOK  241 

place.  For  a  time,  it  was  thought  that  alcohol 
might  recover  its  sway,  and  it  is  still  quite 
probable  that  human  cravings  for  stimulant 
of  some  kind  will  find  a  partial  relief  in  that 
direction.  The  present  enemy,  however,  and 
one  that  demands  serious  and  immediate  at- 
tention, is  morphia,  which  is  being  largely  im- 
ported into  China  in  the  shape  of  a  variety  of 
preparations  suitable  to  the  public  demand.  A 
passage  from  opium  to  morphia  would  be  worse, 
if  possible,  than  from  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire. 
The  question  has  often  been  asked,  but  has 
never  found  a  satisfactory  answer,  why  and 
how  it  is  that  Chinese  civilization  has  per- 
sisted through  so  many  centuries,  while  other 
civilizations,  with  equal  if  not  superior  claims 
to  permanency,  have  been  broken  up  and 
have  disappeared  from  the  sites  on  which  they 
formerly  flourished.  Egypt  may  be  able  to 
boast  of  a  high  level  of  culture  at  a  remoter 
date  than  we  can  reach  through  the  medium 
of  Chinese  records,  for  all  we  can  honestly 
affirm  is  that  the  Chinese  were  a  remarkably 
civilized  nation  a  thousand  years  before 
Christ.  That  was  some  time  before  Greek 
civilization  can  be  said  to  have  begun;  yet 
the  Chinese  nation  is  with  us  still,  and  but 
for  contact  with  the  Western  barbarian,  would 
be  leading  very  much  the  same  life  that  it  led 
so  many  centuries  ago. 


242    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

Some  would  have  us  believe  that  the  bond 
which  has  held  the  people  together  is  the 
written  language,  which  is  common  to  the 
whole  Empire,  and  which  all  can  read  in 
the  same  sense,  though  the  pronunciation  of 
words  varies  in  different  provinces  as  much  as 
that  of  words  in  English,  French  or  German. 
Others  have  suggested  that  to  the  teachings  of 
Confucius,  which  have  outlived  the  competi- 
tion of  Taoism,  Buddhism  and  other  faiths, 
China  is  indebted  for  the  tie  which  has 
knitted  men's  hearts  together,  and  enabled 
them  to  defy  any  process  of  disintegration. 
There  is  possibly  some  truth  in  all  such 
theories;  but  these  are  incomplete  unless  a 
considerable  share  of  the  credit  is  allowed  to 
the  spirit  of  personal  freedom  which  seems  to 
breathe  through  all  Chinese  institutions,  and 
to  unite  the  people  in  resistance  to  every  form 
of  oppression.  The  Chinese  have  always  be- 
lieved in  the  divine  right  of  kings;  on  the 
other  hand,  their  kings  must  bear  themselves 
as  kings,  and  live  up  to  their  responsibilities 
as  well  as  to  the  rights  they  claim.  Other- 
wise, the  obligation  is  at  an  end,  and  their 
subjects  will  have  none  of  them.  Good  gov- 
ernment exists  in  Chinese  eyes  only  when  the 
country  is  prosperous,  free  from  war,  pestil- 
ence and  famine.  Misgovernment  is  a  sure 
sign  that  God  has  withdrawn  His  mandate 


THE  OUTLOOK  243 

from  the  emperor,  who  is  no  longer  fit  to  rule. 
It  then  remains  to  replace  the  emperor  by  one 
who  is  more  worthy  of  Divine  favour,  and  this 
usually  means  the  final  overthrow  of  the 
dynasty. 

The  Chinese  assert  their  right  to  put  an 
evil  ruler  to  death,  and  it  is  not  high  treason, 
or  criminal  in  any  way,  to  proclaim  this 
principle  in  public.  It  is  plainly  stated  by 
the  Philosopher  Mencius,  whose  writings 
form  a  portion  of  the  Confucian  Canon,  and 
are  taught  in  the  ordinary  course  to  every 
Chinese  youth.  One  of  the  feudal  rulers  was 
speaking  to  Mencius  about  a  wicked  em- 
peror of  eight  hundred  years  back,  who  had 
been  attacked  by  a  patriot  hero,  and  who 
had  perished  in  the  flames  of  his  palace. 
"May  then  a  subject,"  he  asked,  "put  his 
sovereign  to  death  .f^"  To  which  Mencius 
replied  that  any  one  who  did  violence  to 
man's  natural  charity  of  heart,  or  failed 
altogether  in  his  duty  towards  his  neigh- 
bour, was  nothing  more  than  an  unprin- 
cipled ruflSan;  and  he  insinuated  that  it 
had  been  such  a  ruflSan  in  fact,  not  an  em- 
peror in  the  true  sense  of  the  term,  who  had 
perished  in  the  case  they  were  discussing. 
Another  and  most  important  point  to  be 
remembered  in  any  attempt  to  discover  the 
real  secret  of  China's  prolonged  existence  as 


244    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

a  nation,  also  points  in  the  direction  of 
democracy  and  freedom.  The  highest  posi- 
tions in  the  state  have  always  been  open, 
through  the  medium  of  competitive  exami- 
nations, to  the  humblest  peasant  in  the 
empire.  It  is  solely  a  question  of  natural 
ability  coupled  with  an  intellectual  train- 
ing; and  of  the  latter,  it  has  already  been 
shown  that  there  is  no  lack  at  the  disposal 
even  of  the  poorest.  China,  then,  accord- 
ing to  a  high  authority,  has  always  been  at 
the  highest  rung  of  the  democratic  ladder; 
for  it  was  no  less  a  person  than  Napoleon 
who  said:  "Reasonable  democracy  will  never 
aspire  to  anything  more  than  obtaining  an 
equal  power  of  elevation  for  all." 

In  order  to  enforce  their  rights  by  the 
simplest  and  most  bloodless  means,  the 
Chinese  have  steadily  cultivated  the  art  of 
combining  together,  and  have  thus  armed 
themselves  with  an  immaterial,  invisible 
weapon  which  simply  paralyses  the  ag- 
gressor, and  ultimately  leaves  them  masters 
of  the  field.  The  extraordinary  part  of  a 
Chinese  boycott  or  strike  is  the  absolute 
fidelity  by  which  it  is  observed.  If  the  boat- 
men or  chair-coolies  at  any  place  strike, 
they  all  strike;  there  are  no  blacklegs.  If 
the  butchers  refuse  to  sell,  they  all  refuse, 
entirely  confident  in  each  other's  loyalty. 


THE  OUTLOOK  M5 

Foreign  merchants  who  have  offended  the 
Chinese  guilds  by  some  course  of  action  not 
approved  by  those  powerful  bodies,  have 
often  found  to  their  cost  that  such  conduct 
will  not  be  tolerated  for  a  moment,  and  that 
their  only  course  is  to  withdraw,  sometimes 
at  considerable  loss,  from  the  untenable 
position  they  had  taken  up.  The  other  side 
of  the  medal  is  equally  instructive.  Some 
years  ago,  the  foreign  tea-merchants  at  a 
large  port,  in  order  to  curb  excessive  charges, 
decided  to  hoist  the  Chinese  tea-men,  or 
sellers  of  tea,  with  their  own  petard.  They 
organized  a  strict  combination  against  the 
tea-men,  whose  tea  no  colleague  was  to  buy 
until,  by  what  seemed  to  be  a  natural  order 
of  events,  the  tea-men  had  been  brought 
to  their  knees.  The  tea-men,  however,  re- 
mained jSrm,  their  countenances  impassive 
as  ever.  Before  long,  the  tea-merchants 
discovered  that  some  of  their  number  had 
broken  faith,  and  were  doing  a  roaring  busi- 
ness for  their  own  account,  on  the  terms 
originally  insisted  on  by  the  tea-men. 

There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that  China 
is  now  in  the  early  stages  of  serious  and 
important  changes.  Her  old  systems  of  edu- 
cation and  examination  are  to  be  greatly 
modified,  if  not  entirely  remodelled.  The 
distinctive  Chinese  dress  is  to  be  shorn  of 


246    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

two  of  its  most  distinguishing  features — the 
queue  of  the  man  and  the  small  feet  of  the 
women.  The  coinage  is  to  be  brought  more 
into  line  with  commercial  requirements.  The 
administration  of  the  law  is  to  be  so  improved 
that  an  honest  demand  may  be  made — as 
Japan  made  it  some  years  back — for  the 
abolition  of  extra-territoriality,  a  treaty 
obligation  under  which  China  gives  up  all 
jurisdiction  over  resident  foreigners,  and 
agrees  that  they  shall  be  subject,  civilly  and 
criminally  alike,  only  to  their  own  authori- 
ties. The  old  patriarchal  form  of  government, 
autocratic  in  name  but  democratic  in  reality, 
which  has  stood  the  Chinese  people  in  such 
good  stead  for  an  unbroken  period  of  nearly 
twenty-two  centuries,  is  also  to  change  with 
the  changes  of  the  hour,  in  the  hope  that  a 
new  era  will  be  inaugurated,  worthy  to  rank 
with  the  best  days  of  a  glorious,  past. 

And  here  perhaps  it  may  be  convenient  if 
a  slight  outline  is  given  of  the  course  marked 
out  for  the  future.  China  is  to  have  a 
"constitution"  after  the  fashion  of  most 
foreign  nations;  and  her  people,  whose  sole 
weapon  of  defence  and  resistance,  albeit  one 
of  deadly  efficiency,  has  hitherto  been  com- 
bination of  the  masses  against  the  officials 
set  over  them,  are  soon  to  enjoy  the  rights 
of  representative  government.     By  an  Im- 


THE  OUTLOOK  247 

perial  decree,  issued  late  in  1907,  this  prin- 
ciple was  established;  and  by  a  further  de- 
cree, issued  in  1908,  it  was  ordered  that  at 
the  end  of  a  year  provincial  assemblies,  to 
deliberate  on  matters  of  local  government, 
were  to  be  convened  in  all  the  provinces  and 
certain  other  portions  of  the  empire,  as  a 
first  step  towards  the  end  in  view.  Mem- 
bership of  these  assemblies  was  to  be  gained 
by  election,  coupled  with  a  small  property 
qualification;  and  the  number  of  members 
in  each  assembly  was  to  be  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  electors  in  each  area,  which 
works  out  roughly  at  about  one  thousand 
electors  to  each  representative.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  a  census  was  to  be  taken,  pro- 
vincial budgets  were  to  be  drawn  up,  and 
a  new  criminal  code  was  to  be  promulgated, 
on  the  strength  of  which  new  courts  of 
justice  were  to  be  opened  by  the  end  of  the 
third  year.  By  1917,  there  was  to  be  a 
National  Assembly  or  Parliament,  consist- 
ing of  an  Upper  and  Lower  House,  and  a 
prime  minister  was  to  be  appointed. 

On  the  14th  of  October  1909  these  pro- 
vincial assemblies  met  for  the  first  time. 
The  National  Assembly  was  actually  opened 
on  the  third  of  October  1910;  and  in  response 
to  public  feeling,  an  edict  was  issued  a  month 
later   ordering   the   full   constitution   to   be 


248    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

granted  within  three  years  from  date.  It 
is  really  a  single  chamber,  which  contains 
the  elements  of  two.  It  is  composed  of 
about  one  hundred  members,  appointed  by 
the  Throne  and  drawn  from  certain  privi- 
leged classes,  including  thirty-two  high  offi- 
cials and  ten  distinguished  scholars,  together 
with  the  same  number  of  delegates  from  the 
provinces.  Those  who  obtain  seats  are  to 
serve  for  three  years,  and  to  have  their 
expenses  defrayed  by  the  state.  It  is  a  con- 
sultative and  not  an  executive  body;  its 
function  is  to  discuss  such  subjects  as  taxa- 
tion, the  issue  of  an  annual  budget,  the 
amendment  of  the  law,  etc.,  all  of  which 
subjects  are  to  be  approved  by  the  emperor 
before  being  submitted  to  this  assembly, 
and  also  to  deal  with  questions  sent  up  for 
decision  from  the  provincial  assemblies. 
Similarly,  any  resolution  to .  be  proposed 
must  be  backed  by  at  least  thirty  members, 
and  on  being  duly  passed  by  a  majority, 
must  then  be  embodied  in  a  memorial  to  the 
Throne.  For  passing  and  submitting  resolu- 
tions which  may  be  classed  under  various 
headings  as  objectionable,  the  assembly  can 
at  once  be  dissolved  by  Imperial  edict. 

There  are,  so  far,  no  distinct  parties  in  the 
National  Assembly,  that  is,  as  regards  the 
places  occupied  in  the  House.    Men  of  various 


THE  OUTLOOK  249 

shades  of  opinion.  Radicals,  Liberals  and 
Conservatives,  are  all  mixed  up  together. 
The  first  two  benches  are  set  aside  for  repre- 
sentatives of  the  nobility,  with  precedence 
from  the  left  of  the  president  round  to  his 
right.  Then  come  officials,  scholars  and 
leading  merchants  on  the  next  two  benches. 
Behind  them,  again,  on  four  rows  of  benches, 
are  the  delegates  from  the  provincial  assem- 
blies. There  is  thus  a  kind  of  House  of 
Lords  in  front,  with  a  House  of  Commons, 
the  representatives  of  the  nation,  at  the 
back.  The  leanings  of  the  former  class,  as 
might  be  supposed,  are  mostly  of  a  con- 
servative tendency,  while  the  sympathies  of 
the  latter  are  rather  with  progressive  ideas; 
at  the  same  time,  there  will  be  found  among 
the  Lords  a  certain  sprinkling  of  Radicals, 
and  among  the  Commons  not  a  few  whose 
views  are  of  an  antiquated,  not  to  say  re- 
actionary, type. 

With  the  above  scheme  the  Chinese  people 
are  given  to  understand  quite  clearly  that 
while  their  advice  in  matters  concerning  the 
administration  of  government  will  be  warmly 
welcomed,  all  legislative  power  will  remain, 
as  heretofore,  confined  to  the  emperor  alone. 
At  the  first  blush,  this  seems  like  giving  with 
one  hand  and  taking  away  with  the  other; 
and  so  perhaps  it  would  work  out  in  more 


250    THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA 

than  one  nation  of  the  West.  But  those  who 
know  the  Chinese  at  home  know  that  when 
they  oflfer  poHtical  advice  they  mean  it  to 
be  taken.  The  great  democracy  of  China, 
living  in  the  greatest  repubhc  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  would  never  tolerate  any  paltering 
with  national  liberties  in  the  present  or  in 
the  future,  any  more  than  has  been  the  case 
in  the  past.  Those  who  sit  in  the  seats  of 
authority  at  the  capital  are  far  too  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  temper  of  their  country- 
men to  believe  for  a  moment  that,  where 
such  vital  interests  are  concerned,  there  can 
be  anything  contemplated  save  steady  and 
satisfactory  progress  towards  the  goal  pro- 
posed. If  the  ruling  Manchus  seize  the  op- 
portunity now  offered  them,  then,  in  spite 
of  simmering  sedition  here  and  there  over 
the  empire,  they  may  succeed  in  continuing 
a  line  which  in  its  early  days  had  a  glorious 
record  of  achievement,  to  the  great  advan- 
tage of  the  Chinese  nation.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  neglect  this  chance,  there  may 
result  one  of  those  frightful  upheavals  from 
which  the  empire  has  so  often  suffered. 
China  will  pass  again  through  the  melting- 
pot,  to  emerge  once  more,  as  on  all  previous 
occasions,  purified  and  strengthened  by  the 
process. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1.  The  Chinese  Classics,  by  James  Legge,  D.D.,  late  Pro- 

fessor of  Chinese  at  Oxford. 
A  translation  of  the  whole  of  the  Confucian  Canon,  com- 
prising the  Four  Books  in  which  are  given  the  discourses  of 
Confucius  and  Mencius,  the  Book  of  History,  the  Odes,  the 
Annals  of  Confucius'  native  State,  the  Book  of  Rites,  and 
the  Book  of  Changes. 

2.  The  Ancient  History  of  China,  by  F.  Hirth,  Ph.D.,  Pro- 

fessor of  Chinese  at  Columbia  University,  New  York. 
A  sketch  of  Chinese  history  from  fabulous  ages  down  to 
221  B.C.,  containing  a  good  deal  of  information  of  an  anti- 
quarian character,  and  altogether  placing  in  its  most  attrac- 
tive light  what  must  necessarily  be  rather  a  dull  period  for 
the  general  reader. 

3.  China,  by  E.  H.  Parker,  Professor  of  Chinese  at  Vic- 

toria University,  Manchester. 
A  general  account  of  China,  chiefly  valuable  for  com- 
mercial and  statistical  information,  sketch-maps  of  ancient 
trade-routes,  etc. 

4.  A  Chinese  Biographical  Dictionary,  by  H.  A.  Giles, 

LL.D.,  Professor  of  Chinese  at  the  University  of 

Cambridge. 
This  work  contains  2579  short  lives  of  Chinese  Emperors, 
statesmen,  generals,  scholars,  priests,  and  other  classes,  in- 
cluding some  women,  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the 
present  day,  arranged  alphabetically. 

5.  A  Comprehensive  Geography  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  by 

L.  Richard. 

This  work  is  rightly  named  "comprehensive,''  for  it  con- 
tains a  great  deal  of  information  which  cannot  be  strictly 


252  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

classed  as  geographical,  all  of  which,  however,  is  of  consid- 
erable value  to  the  student. 

6.  Descriptive  Sociology  (Chinese),  by  E.  T.  C.  Werner, 

H.B.M.,  Consul  at  Foochow. 
A  volume  of  the  series  initiated  by  Herbert  Spencer. 
It  consists  of  a  large  number  of  sociological  facts  grouped 
and  arranged  in  chronological  order,  and  is  of  course  purely 
a  work  of  reference. 

7.  A  History  of  Chinese  Ldteraturej  by  H.  A.  Giles. 
Notes  on  two  or  three  hundred  writers  of  history,  phi- 
losophy, biography,  travel,  poetry,  plays,  fiction,  etc.,  with 
a  large  number  of  translated  extracts  grouped  under  the 
above  headings  and  arranged  in  chronological  order. 

8.  Chinese  Poetry  in  English  Verse,  by  H.  A.  Giles. 
Rhymed  translations  of  nearly  two  hundred  short  poems 

from  the  earhest  ages  down  to  the  present  times. 

9.  An  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Chinese  Pictorial  Art,  by 

H.  A.  Giles. 
Notes  on  the  hves  and  works  of  over  three  hundred 
painters  of  all  ages,  chiefly  translated  from  the  writings  of 
Chinese  art-critics,  with  sixteen  reproductions  of  famous 
Chinese  pictures. 

10.  Scraps  from  a  Collector's  Note-book,  by  F.  Hirth. 
Chiefly  devoted  to  notes  on  painters  of  the  present  dy- 
nasty, 164i-1905,  with  twenty-one  reproductions  of  famous 
pictures,  forming  a  complementary  supplement  to  No.  9. 

11.  Religions  of  Ancient  China,  by  H.  A.  Giles. 

A  short  account  of  the  early  worship  of  one  God,  followed 
by  brief  notices  of  Taoism,  Buddhism,  Nestorian  Christian- 
ity, Mahommedanism,  and  other  less  well-known  faiths 
which  have  been  introduced  at  various  dates  into  CJiina. 

12.  Chinese  Characteristics,  by  the  Rev.  Arthur  Smith, 

D.D. 
A  humorous  but  at  the  same  time  serious  examination 
into  the  modes  of  thought  and  springs  of  action  which 
pecuUarly  distinguish  the  Chinese  people. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  253 

13.  Village  Life  in  China,  by  the  Rev.  Arthur  Smith. 
The  scope  of  this  work  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  its 

title. 

14.  China  under  the  Empress  Dowager ,  by  J.  O.  Bland  and 

E.  Backhouse. 
An  interesting  account  of  Chinese  Court  Life  between 
1860  and  1908,  with  important  sidelights  on  the  Boxer 
troubles  and  the  Siege  of  the  Legations  in  1900. 

15.  The  Imperial  History  of  China,  by  Rev.  J.  Macgowan. 
A  short  and  compact  work  on  a  subject  which  has  not  yet 

been  successfully  handled. 

16.  Indiscreet  Letters  from  Peking,  by  B.  Putnam  Weale. 
Though  too  outspoken  to  meet  with  general  approba- 
tion, this  work  is  considered  by  many  to  give  the  most  faith- 
ful account  of  the  Siege  of  the  Legations,  as  seen  by  an 
independent  witness. 

17.  Bvddhism  as  a  Religion,  by  H.  Hackmann,  Lie.  Theol. 
A  very  useful  volume,  translated  from  the  German,  show- 
ing the  various  developments  of  Buddhism  in  different  parts 
of  the  world. 

18.  Chuang  TzU,  by  H.  A  Giles. 

A  complete  translation  of  the  writings  of  the  leading 
Taoist  philosopher,  who  flourished  in  the  fourth  and  third 
centuries  B.C. 


INDEX 


Actors,  164 
Air-ships,  121 
Alchemy,  62 
Anaesthetics,  122,  135 
Ancestral  worship,  67 
Assemblies,  provincial  and  national. 
248 

Block-printing,  129 

"  Books  "  in  early  ages,  27 

Bronze,  casting,  121 

Brush-pen  invented,  37 

Buddhism,  57 

Burning  the  Books,  32 

Butting  and  boxing,  154 

Canal,  the  Grand,  20 
Cards,  playing,  162 
Censorate,  the,  158 
Census,  the,  14 
Children,  treatment  of,  98 
"  illegitimate,  101 

Comage,  early,  39 
Compass,  the,  120 
Competitive  examinations,  114 
Confucianism,  72,  145 
Constitution,  the  new,  246 
Cremation,  50 

Degrees  established,  37 

Dialects,  15 

Dice,  162 

Dictionary,  the  Imperial,  211 

Divination,  65 

Divorce,  101 

Drunkenness,  77,  240 

Elixir  of  Life,  62 
Emperor,  the  First,  31 
Encyclopaedias,  202,  211 
Etiquette,  227 

Fa  Hsien,  83 
Family  life,  190 
Feasting,  172,  175 


Filial  piety,  75 
Finger-prints,  120 
Football,  155 
Fortune-telling,  66 

Gambling,  162 
Geomancy,  66 
God,  letters  from,  74 
"Gold,"  swallowing,  159 
Grape,  imported,  38 
Gratitude,  215 
Gunpowder,  120 

Home,  love  of,  190 
Honesty,  77 
Hj^notism,  67 

Impressionism,  124 
Infanticide,  98 
Ink  invented,  37 
Inventions,  120 
Iron  ships,  121 

Land  tenure,  41 
Language  spoken,  15 
"         written,  17 
Lao  Tzu,  60 
Liberty,  personal,  21 
Lingering  death,  45 
Limatics,  117 

Marriage,  18,  48 
Measures,  standard,  40 
Medical  art,  27 
Ming  Huang,  the  Emperor, 
Money,  paper,  39 
Morphia,  241 
Mothers-in-law,  101 
Mourning,  47 
Music,  38 

New  Year,  the,  172 
Newspapers,  129 
Novels,  131 

Old  Philosopher,  the,  60 


256 


INDEX 


Painting,  122 
Paper  invented,  37 
Patriotism,  181 
Peking  Gazette,  129 
Penal  Code,  44 
"Pigtail,"  109 
Planchette,  69 
Poetry,  122,  152 
Polo,  155 
Population,  14 
Porcelain,  121 
Printing,  127 
Punch  and  Judy,  167 
Punishments,  103 
Purgatory,  232 
Purity  of  literature,  131 

Reformer,  the,  91 
Religions,  57 
Revenge,  101,  220 
Revenue,  42 

Salaries,  oflEicial,  53 
Schools,  113 
Secret  Societies,  71 
Servants,  77 
Silk,  121 
Slavery,  101 
Small  feet,  108 
Soldiers,  92,  113,  187 
Son  of  Heaven,  73 
Soul,  the,  68 


Spirits,  good  and  evil,  69 
Sport,  151 
Suicide,  101,  159 
Sun-dial,  38 
Surgery,  134 
Surnames,  29 

T'ang  Dynasty,  83 
Taoism,  59 
Taxation,  41 
"Taxicab,"  119 
Theatre,  the,  162 
Three  Kingdoms,  81 
Torture,  44,  103 

Vegetarians,  71 

Wall,  the  Great,  20 

Warfare,  ancient,  23 

Water-clock,  38,  222 

Widows,  107 

Wives  and  concubines,  100 

Women,  exemptions  of,  102 
"        influence  of,  106 
**        as  officials,  84 

Written  characters,  231 

Wu,  Empress,  84 

Yangtsze,  19 
Year,  lunar,  223 
Yellow  River,  19 


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